FUNCTIONAL DIVISIONS OF THE CEREBRAL CORTEX

Lobe Cortical Area Function

Frontal Prefrontal cortex. Emotions, complex thought, problem solving.
Motor association cortex (premotor and supplementary cortex): Coordination of complex movement.
• Located in front of primary motor cortex, on lateral cortex (Brodmann area 6).
Primary motor cortex: Initiation of voluntary movement; receives sensory
• Located within precentral gyrus (Brodmann area 4). input from spinal cord and other cortical areas w/c
• Body parts represented in order along gyrus: legs on top, head at bottom. it uses to modify motor commands.
• Amount of body cortex representing bodypart is proportional in size to amount
of skill neededed for its movement (eg, cortical areas for hand movements are
much larger than those for trunk.)
Broca area – at inferior frontal gyrus, anterior to inferior end of motor cortex Production and articulation of speech.
(Brodmann areas 44 and 45 .)
Parietal Primary somatosensory cortex: Receives tactile information from the body.
• Located within postcentral gyrus (Brodmann areas 1, 2, 3).
• Body parts represented in order along gyrus: legs on top, head at bottom.
• Size of cortical receiving area for impulses from body part is proportional to the
number of receptors in that part (eg, cortical areas for hands are much larger than
those for trunk).
Sensory association cortex. Processing of multisensory information.
Temporal Auditory cortex: Detection of sound quality.
• Located in superior temporal lobe in sylvian fissure (Brodmann area 41).
Auditory association cortex. Complex processing of auditory information.
Wernicke area: Comprehension of language.
 • Supramarginal and angular gyri and posterior part of superior temporal gyrus
(Brodmann area 22).
Lobe Cortical Area Function
Limbic system: Behavior (aggression, feeding, sexuality).
• Includes cingulate, parahippocampal, and subcallosal gyri; hippocampus; Emotions, olfaction, memory.
amygdale; dentate gyrus; subiculum; hypothalamus; basal ganglia. Autonomic responses (blood pressure, respiration).
• Papez circuit: closed circuit of the limbic system: hippocampus > fornix >
mamillary bodies > anterior nuclei of thalamus (mamillothalamic tract) >
cingulated cortex > hippocampus.
Occipital Visual cortex: occipital eye fields (Broadmann area 17). Detection of visual stimuli.
Visual association area overlaps posterioir parietal and temporal areas. Complex processing of visual information.