motor area

an area of the motor cortex that, when stimulated, produces movements of skeletal muscles in various parts of the body. It has somatotopic organization, with individual neurons controlling a specific movement direction of an associated body part that might involve coordinated action of several muscles. Also called Brodmann’s area 4.

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Psychology term of the day

January 18th 2025

hierarchical model of personality

a model of either within-person dynamics or individual differences in personality in which some psychological constructs are viewed as high-level variables that organize or govern the functioning of other lower level variables. For example, a hierarchical model of personality traits might view the construct sociability as being at a lower level in a hierarchy than the construct extraversion: Sociability would be seen as a form or example of the higher level trait of extraversion.