[Verse 1] Deep inside the cortex, a sulcus cuts a seam, Cingulate motor areas hide along that inner seam. Rostral sits up front, they call it CMAr for short, Caudal trails behind it — c, d, v, the whole cohort. Not just one address, a strip that splits in two, One leans toward the limbic, one answers "what to do." [Chorus] Cingulate, cingulate, buried in the groove, Rostral feels the reason, caudal makes the move, CMAr dreams the motive, CMAc throws the switch, Straight line to the spinal cord — no middleman, no glitch. [Verse 2] Limbic fibers wander in, carrying the want, Desire and aversion, every craving, every taunt, These neurons turn a feeling into fire for the limb, An efferent highway — a nerve road running out, not in — drops straight down to the spinal cord, skipping the relay, motivation turns to motion in the quickest way. [Chorus] Cingulate, cingulate, buried in the groove, Rostral feels the reason, caudal makes the move, CMAr dreams the motive, CMAc throws the switch, Straight line to the spinal cord — no middleman, no glitch. [Verse 3] Shima and Tanji, nineteen ninety-eight, watched the CMA neurons calculate the fading weight, when the payoff shrinks — diminution of the prize, a quiet dimming of the treat you thought you'd claimed this time — these cells light up and murmur "switch, don't stay," abandon the old habit, find another way to play. [Bridge] Medial system: SMA, pre-SMA, and the CMA crew, self-made movement, inner plans pushed through. Lateral premotor answers cues out in the scene, visual signals guiding what the hands have seen. One's an inward compass, one reads the outer stage, together they divide the motor's crowded page. [Chorus] Cingulate, cingulate, buried in the groove, Rostral feels the reason, caudal makes the move, CMAr dreams the motive, CMAc throws the switch, Straight line to the spinal cord — no middleman, no glitch. [Verse 4] Effort has a currency, the brain keeps careful score, weighing cost against the prize behind the cingulate door. Anterior and posterior, a conflict-sensing crew, flagging every error, deciding what to do. When the old plan falters and the outcome starts to fade, the cingulate recalculates, a fresh decision made. It's not just muscle wired to move the body's frame, it's valuation's engine, lighting up the game — translating worth to action, a bridge that few can see, between the mind's intention and the body's energy. [Outro] Cingulate sulcus, reason meets the deed, rostral to the caudal, motivation plants the seed, reward goes down, the neurons sound the chime, switch the action — CMA keeps the time. [Chorus] Cingulate, cingulate, buried in the groove, Rostral feels the reason, caudal makes the move, CMAr dreams the motive, CMAc throws the switch, Straight line to the spinal cord — no middleman, no glitch.
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