This chapter provides an overview of research on the “acting brain” starting with higher-level planning of actions and free-will through to topics such as Parkinson’s disease, the role of the basal ganglia and tool use. The prefrontal cortex is involved in action selection (e.g., activated when contrasting open-ended versus instructed actions) but is not involved in movement per se. The primary motor cortex is responsible for the execution of all voluntary movements of the body. Visually guided actions involve the dorsal stream for vision which involves several regions of the parietal lobes that contain neurons with both visual and motor/body-centered receptive fields. The human brain contains a store of object-dependent actions that may reside in the left inferior parietal lobe and are impaired in ideomotor apraxia. Various route between the frontal cortex and basal ganglia are involved in the control of action (e.g., modifying the force) and a separate loop through the cerebellum updates ongoing action through sensory feedback.
