Question: how does such a small part of the brain do so much for a creature when lots of the brain is focused purely on moving?

Indi Ghangrekar answered on 12 Mar 2012:

A small part of the brain, like the kind I research – the body clock – can have a large effect on a creature because brain cells have lots of connections with lots of other brain cells and having lots of connections means that a small region can influence an animal a lot. The clock region of the brain has connections with a part of the brain that releases hormones – the pituitary gland – and as the hormones are released into the blood stream, they can affect the rest of the body. It also has connections with brain regions that monitor the body’s internal state – temperature, hunger, thirst and many more and can have an effect through these regions too.

The reason a large part of the brain does control movement is because it is actually very complicated even though we carry out most of our movements by thinking about them very briefly. My fingers typing on the keyboard right now are moving quickly and in intricate patterns using lots of different muscles in my hands, wrists and arms; at the same time my body’s posture is maintained in a sitting position but I don’t even have to actively think about it to do it. The pressure used is very defined – if I just lightly grazed the keys, the letters wouldn’t get typed, equally, if I smashed down on each key, they’d soon stop working. We learn things like how much pressure and speed to apply to movements very early in development and continue to do so each time we learn new skills – initially it takes practice but you get better as you learn exactly what is required. For example, if you think back to the last time you learnt to do some new physical activity, a new sport or activity or a musical instrument, it probably took a few goes to be really good at it but with practice you learnt how much pressure and speed to apply to each movement and then it becomes natural.