The lobes of the brain are the four major identifiable regions of the human

cerebral cortex The cerebral cortex, also known as the cerebral mantle, is the outer layer of neural tissue of the cerebrum of the brain in humans and other mammals. It is the largest site of Neuron, neural integration in the central nervous system, and plays ...

, and they comprise the surface of each hemisphere of the

cerebrum The cerebrum (: cerebra), telencephalon or endbrain is the largest part of the brain, containing the cerebral cortex (of the two cerebral hemispheres) as well as several subcortical structures, including the hippocampus, basal ganglia, and olfac ...

. The two hemispheres are roughly symmetrical in structure, and are connected by the corpus callosum. Some sources include the insula and limbic lobe but the limbic lobe incorporates parts of the other lobes. The lobes are large areas that are anatomically distinguishable, and are also functionally distinct. Each lobe of the brain has numerous ridges, or

gyri In neuroanatomy, a gyrus (: gyri) is a ridge on the cerebral cortex. It is generally surrounded by one or more sulcus (neuroanatomy), sulci (depressions or furrows; : sulcus). Gyri and sulci create the folded appearance of the brain in huma ...

, and furrows, sulci that constitute further subzones of the cortex. The expression "lobes of the brain" usually refers only to those of the cerebrum, not to the distinct areas of the

cerebellum The cerebellum (: cerebella or cerebellums; Latin for 'little brain') is a major feature of the hindbrain of all vertebrates. Although usually smaller than the cerebrum, in some animals such as the mormyrid fishes it may be as large as it or eve ...

Frontal lobe

The frontal lobe is located at the front of each

cerebral hemisphere The vertebrate cerebrum (brain) is formed by two cerebral hemispheres that are separated by a groove, the longitudinal fissure. The brain can thus be described as being divided into left and right cerebral hemispheres. Each of these hemispheres ...

and positioned in front of the

parietal lobe The parietal lobe is one of the four Lobes of the brain, major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The parietal lobe is positioned above the temporal lobe and behind the frontal lobe and central sulcus. The parietal lobe integra ...

and above and in front of the

temporal lobe The temporal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The temporal lobe is located beneath the lateral fissure on both cerebral hemispheres of the mammalian brain. The temporal lobe is involved in pr ...

. It is separated from the parietal lobe by a space between tissues called the central sulcus, and from the temporal lobe by a deep fold called the lateral sulcus, also called the Sylvian fissure. The precentral gyrus, which forms the posterior border of the frontal lobe, contains the primary motor cortex ( area 4 under the Brodmann area architecture) which controls voluntary movements of specific body parts. The precentral region also contains the premotor cortex ( Brodmann area 6). The frontal lobe contains most of the

dopamine Dopamine (DA, a contraction of 3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine) is a neuromodulatory molecule that plays several important roles in cells. It is an organic chemical of the catecholamine and phenethylamine families. It is an amine synthesized ...

-delicate

neurons A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, excitable cell (biology), cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network (biology), neural net ...

in the

. The dopamine system is associated with reward,

attention Attention or focus, is the concentration of awareness on some phenomenon to the exclusion of other stimuli. It is the selective concentration on discrete information, either subjectively or objectively. William James (1890) wrote that "Atte ...

short-term memory Short-term memory (or "primary" or "active memory") is the capacity for holding a small amount of information in an active, readily available state for a short interval. For example, short-term memory holds a phone number that has just been recit ...

tasks, planning, and

motivation Motivation is an mental state, internal state that propels individuals to engage in goal-directed behavior. It is often understood as a force that explains why people or animals initiate, continue, or terminate a certain behavior at a particul ...

. Dopamine tends to limit and select sensory information arriving from the

thalamus The thalamus (: thalami; from Greek language, Greek Wikt:θάλαμος, θάλαμος, "chamber") is a large mass of gray matter on the lateral wall of the third ventricle forming the wikt:dorsal, dorsal part of the diencephalon (a division of ...

to the

forebrain In the anatomy of the brain of vertebrates, the forebrain or prosencephalon is the rostral (forward-most) portion of the brain. The forebrain controls body temperature, reproductive functions, eating, sleeping, and the display of emotions. Ve ...

. A report from the National Institute of Mental Health says a

gene In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...

variant that reduces dopamine activity in the

prefrontal cortex In mammalian brain anatomy, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) covers the front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. It is the association cortex in the frontal lobe. The PFC contains the Brodmann areas BA8, BA9, BA10, BA11, BA12, ...

is related to poorer performance and inefficient functioning of that brain region during working memory tasks, and to a slightly increased risk for

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

. The frontal lobe consists of the

which is located in the most anterior (farthest away) section of the frontal lobe. It is critical for one's working memory and executive control which helps keep goals and complex tasks organized. The divisions of the prefrontal cortex include orbital, medial, and

lateral Lateral is a geometric term of location which may also refer to: Biology and healthcare * Lateral (anatomy), a term of location meaning "towards the side" * Lateral cricoarytenoid muscle, an intrinsic muscle of the larynx * Lateral release ( ...

prefrontal cortex. Within the lateral prefrontal cortex there are two different divisions: the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is located on top of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and is mainly responsible for the executive control and manipulation of memories that are retrieved through episodic memory. The ventrolateral prefrontal cortex is important for the regulation of meaningful stimuli that a person experiences throughout their lifetime, such as images, letters, and names. Damage to the prefrontal cortex can result in issues with one's long term and short-term memories, as well as create changes in people's behaviors and their abilities to plan and organize. Damage can result from lesions or tumors that have been surgically removed, and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) experienced from a severe hit to the head causing damage to the brain from swelling. Most often a TBI is experienced within a person's childhood from playing competitive sports or an accident from normal play. Having a traumatic brain injury can increase your chances of developing neurological psychiatric problems and abusing substances, such as cannabis, is known to be a risk factor in developing symptoms associated with schizophrenia. A study found that schizophrenia symptoms (hearing voices, talking to people who were not there, etc.) worsened after the usage of cannabis, suggesting that a TBI from childhood can enhance a development of psychosis due to the changes seen in the white matter within the frontal-temporal areas.

Parietal lobe

The parietal lobe is positioned above the occipital lobe and behind the

frontal lobe The frontal lobe is the largest of the four major lobes of the brain in mammals, and is located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere (in front of the parietal lobe and the temporal lobe). It is parted from the parietal lobe by a Sulcus (neur ...

and central sulcus. The parietal lobe integrates sensory information among various modalities, including spatial sense and navigation (

proprioception Proprioception ( ) is the sense of self-movement, force, and body position. Proprioception is mediated by proprioceptors, a type of sensory receptor, located within muscles, tendons, and joints. Most animals possess multiple subtypes of propri ...

), the main sensory receptive area for the sense of touch ( mechanoreception) in the somatosensory cortex which is just posterior to the central sulcus in the postcentral gyrus, and the dorsal stream of the

visual system The visual system is the physiological basis of visual perception (the ability to perception, detect and process light). The system detects, phototransduction, transduces and interprets information concerning light within the visible range to ...

. The major sensory inputs from the

skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different ...

( touch,

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making ...

, and

pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sense, sensory and emotional experience associated with, or res ...

receptors), relay through the

to the parietal lobe. Several areas of the parietal lobe are important in language processing. The somatosensory cortex can be illustrated as a distorted figure — the homunculus (

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

: "little man"), in which the body parts are rendered according to how much of the somatosensory cortex is devoted to them.Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D. L. & Wegner, D. M. (2009). Psychology. (2nd ed.). New Work (NY): Worth Publishers. The superior parietal lobule and inferior parietal lobule are the primary areas of body or spatial awareness. A lesion commonly in the right superior or inferior parietal lobule leads to hemineglect.

Occipital lobe

The occipital lobe is the visual processing center of the

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

ian

brain The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

containing most of the anatomical region of the

visual cortex The visual cortex of the brain is the area of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information. It is located in the occipital lobe. Sensory input originating from the eyes travels through the lateral geniculate nucleus in the thalam ...

. The

primary visual cortex The visual cortex of the brain is the area of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information. It is located in the occipital lobe. Sensory input originating from the eyes travels through the lateral geniculate nucleus in the thalamus ...

is Brodmann area 17, commonly called V1 (visual one). Human V1 is located on the medial side of the occipital lobe within the calcarine sulcus; the full extent of V1 often continues onto the posterior pole of the occipital lobe. V1 is often also called striate cortex because it can be identified by a large stripe of myelin, the Stria of Gennari. Visually driven regions outside V1 are called

extrastriate cortex The extrastriate cortex is the region of the occipital cortex of the mammalian brain located next to the primary visual cortex. Primary visual cortex (V1) is also named striate cortex because of its striped appearance in the microscope. The e ...

. There are many extrastriate regions, and these are specialized for different visual tasks, such as visuospatial processing, color differentiation, and motion perception.

Temporal lobe

The temporal lobe is located beneath the lateral fissure on both

s of the mammalian

. The temporal lobe is involved in processing sensory input into derived meanings for the appropriate retention of visual memories, language comprehension, and emotion association. Within the temporal lobe is an area of the brain called the

hippocampus The hippocampus (: hippocampi; via Latin from Ancient Greek, Greek , 'seahorse'), also hippocampus proper, is a major component of the brain of humans and many other vertebrates. In the human brain the hippocampus, the dentate gyrus, and the ...

which is associated with forming new memories and learning new things. The hippocampus has been studied many times in the past for its correlation with epilepsy showing there to be damage of this area. Although it has been difficult to determine the exact link between the temporal lobe and epilepsy, Chauvière (2020) suggests that there is a positive connection between the circuitry reorganization within the neurons and temporal lobe structure impacting rhythmic activities that are important for cognition.

Limbic lobe

The limbic lobe is an arc-shaped region of

cortex Cortex or cortical may refer to: Biology * Cortex (anatomy), the outermost layer of an organ ** Cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the vertebrate cerebrum, part of which is the ''forebrain'' *** Motor cortex, the regions of the cerebral cortex i ...

on the medial surface of each

of the mammalian brain, consisting of parts of the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes. The term is ambiguous, with some authors including the paraterminal gyrus, the subcallosal area, the cingulate gyrus, the parahippocampal gyrus, the dentate gyrus, the

and the subiculum; while the '' Terminologia Anatomica'' includes the cingulate sulcus, the cingulate gyrus, the isthmus of cingulate gyrus, the fasciolar gyrus, the parahippocampal gyrus, the parahippocampal sulcus, the dentate gyrus, the fimbrodentate sulcus, the fimbria of hippocampus, the collateral sulcus, and the rhinal sulcus, and omits the hippocampus.

Insular cortex

The insular cortex is a portion of the

folded deep within the lateral sulcus (the fissure separating the

from the parietal and

s). The insular cortex has an important function for sending axons to the amygdala and responding to tones and somatosensory stimulation. Berret, et al. (2019) used mice to study the fear response that is associated with perceived threats from their memory of previously being shocked on their foot, finding adverse reflex responses in shocking stimulation whenever the insular cortex was silenced. This finding supports that the insular cortex takes information to specific

amygdala The amygdala (; : amygdalae or amygdalas; also '; Latin from Greek language, Greek, , ', 'almond', 'tonsil') is a paired nucleus (neuroanatomy), nuclear complex present in the Cerebral hemisphere, cerebral hemispheres of vertebrates. It is c ...

subdivisions creating different components for fear behaviors.Berret, et al., 2019. The insulae are believed to be involved in

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, an ...

and play a role in diverse functions usually linked to

emotion Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavior, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is ...

or the regulation of the body's

homeostasis In biology, homeostasis (British English, British also homoeostasis; ) is the state of steady internal physics, physical and chemistry, chemical conditions maintained by organism, living systems. This is the condition of optimal functioning fo ...

. These functions include

perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous syste ...

motor control Motor control is the regulation of movements in organisms that possess a nervous system. Motor control includes conscious voluntary movements, subconscious muscle memory and involuntary reflexes, as well as instinctual taxes. To control ...

, self-awareness, cognitive functioning, and interpersonal experience. In relation to these, it is involved in psychopathology. The insular cortex is divided into two parts: the larger anterior insula and the smaller posterior insula in which more than a dozen field areas have been identified. The cortical area overlying the insula toward the lateral surface of the brain is the operculum (meaning ''lid''). The opercula are formed from parts of the enclosing frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes.

Model images

File:Lobes of the brain.jpg, Inferior view of cerebrum. File:Blausen 0101 Brain LateralView.png, Lateral view of left hemisphere. File:Four lobes animation small2.gif, Both hemispheres. Left and right lobes are color-matched. File:Brain lobes - insular lobe.png, Insular lobe. File:Brainlobes.svg, Four cerebral lobes and cerebellum: File:Blausen 0111 BrainLobes.png, Brain lobes and

olfactory bulb The olfactory bulb (Latin: ''bulbus olfactorius'') is a neural structure of the vertebrate forebrain involved in olfaction, the sense of smell. It sends olfactory information to be further processed in the amygdala, the orbitofrontal cortex (OF ...

References

Berger, Oltmanns, Holtkamp, & Bengner. (2017). Sex differences in verbal and nonverbal learning before and after temporal lobe epilepsy surgery. Epilepsy & Behavior, 66, 57–63. Berret, Kintscher, Palchaudhuri, Tang, Osypenko, Kochubey, & Schneggenburge, (2019). Insular cortex processes aversive somatosensory information and is crucial for threat learning. Science, 364(6443), 1–11. Chauvière. (2020). Potential causes of cognitive alterations in temporal lobe epilepsy. Behavioural Brain Research, 378. Gluck, Mercado, & Myers. (2020). Learning and memory from brain to behavior. ''Worth Publications'' Jain, & Srivastava, (2017). Frontal lobe abnormality and psychosis in traumatic brain injury and cannabis abuse. ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, 18(1).

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lobes Of The Brain Brain