The Basil Ganglia - The Place Where the Locking Mechanisms Exist

The cerebral cortex is the wrinkly outer part of the brain. It's organized as a surface into six distinct layers. If you were to spread it out, it would take up almost two and a half square feet in size - like a sheet of paper fitting into a ball. The basil ganglia sits beneath the cortex, soh it's only visible from cross sections or from illustrations. For the purpose of this simplified explanation, we can think of it as the place where the locking mechanisms exist. This then sends the signal down to lower motor neurons, which actually control the details of movement in the body.