Alright. So in this video, we're going to be talking about some of the functional areas of the cerebral cortex. So as you guys recall, the cortex is the area around the outer edge of the brain or that kind of surface layer of the brain. And the cortex is where higher functions take place. And there are 3 types of functional areas in the cortex. So we're going to go through each type of functional area. We'll talk briefly about what it does and we'll give an example of each one. So we're going to start with the motor area. So the first type of functional area is motor areas. And motor areas are responsible for voluntary movement. Okay. And keep in mind that this is only voluntary. This does not include any kind of reflex activity like blinking, breathing, nothing like that. This is just voluntary conscious movement. Alright? Now the most important, arguably, motor area is the primary motor cortex which we have highlighted here in red for you. And this is part of the frontal lobe. Remember the frontal lobe is largely responsible for voluntary movement. Alright. And we're going to talk about that more in upcoming videos, so stay tuned for that.
Now the next type of functional areas are sensory areas. Alright. And these do exactly what you're probably thinking. They help us process sensory signals and they allow us to have conscious awareness of the things that we are sensing in the world. Alright? And the example we have here for you is the primary auditory cortex which is located in the temporal lobe. All right. And the final type of functional areas is association areas and these are responsible for complex processing. So you'll sometimes see association areas called multimodal association areas as well. And these areas are, as I just alluded to, very very complicated. So in these areas they're going to be receiving input from a lot of other parts of the brain and they're going to be sending output to a lot of other parts of the brain. This is where a lot of our conscious processing and awareness of what is going on in our life is taking place.
So I'm going to give you an example to kind of give you a better idea of what these areas do. So if I was cooking one day, right, I'm cooking, maybe I'm making shrimp scampi, okay, and I accidentally start a grease fire. I'm going to get a lot of sensory input very very quickly. I'm going to see the flames. I might hear, like, the crackling of the flames. I'm going to feel the heat coming off of the fire. I might have burned my finger and now I'm feeling pain in my finger. In addition to all that, I'm probably having some kind of emotional reaction, fear, panic, being startled, something like that. Right? So what's going to happen is all of those signals are going to get sent to an association area, and that area is going to process all of that as one holistic experience and I'm going to have the conscious awareness of, oh my god. I just started a grease fire by accident. Okay? And then they're going to be sending out commands of what to do next. So once they have that kind of conscious processing like this is what's happening in your life, we have to do something about that now, it's going to send, you know, signals to my motor, areas saying, alright, put the lid on the pan, you know, smother that fire, yell to the kids, hey don't come in the kitchen, walk over to the sink and run your finger under cold water. So it received a ton of input. It integrated that all into one experience, allowed me to consciously perceive what was happening, and then sent output to multiple areas to remedy that problem. So very, very complicated processing happening in these areas. And that is just one example of something that an association area can do. And the one that we have here for you for an example is the prefrontal cortex which is arguably the most complex part of the entire human brain. This is where intellect, reasoning, complex cognitive skills, and your personality, are pretty much housed. So again, very complicated areas of the brain there.
And then this final point I wanted to just remind you guys that the sensory and motor areas of our body are chiefly concerned with the opposite side of our body. Remember, we have that contralateral control. So anytime we're talking about the primary motor cortex or anything like that, remember it's going to be controlling the voluntary movement on the opposite side of the body. Alright? I will see you guys in our next video to talk even more about those motor and sensory areas. See you there.