Eli5: How can we move almost any muscle the time we want? How does the brain knows it’s that specific muscle that you want to move?

Question

Like, I can be there just sitting and think. “Now I’m gonna move my middle finger”, and just do it, no reason at all. How does the brain know what muscle is each, how does a signal is determined to make you move the finger you want? Does the brain have a “map” or something of every muscle in your body?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Kind of a map, the motor cortex is a region in your brain and different places on it are associated with different movements. But how your brain takes conscious thought and changes it into movement I don’t think anybody really knows.