The postcentral gyrus is a prominent structure in the parietal lobe of the human brain and an important landmark. It is almost the same as Brodmann areas 3, 1 and 2.
It is the location of primary somatosensory cortex, the main sensory receptive area for the sense of touch. Like other sensory areas, there is a map of sensory space called a homunculus in this location. For the primary somatosensory cortex, this is called the sensory homunculus. See a somewhat fanciful and highly schematic representation of the sensory homunculus at lower right.
Brodmann Areas 3, 1 and 2
Brodmann areas 3, 1 and 2 of human brain. Brodmann area 3 is in red, area 1 in green, and area 2 in yellow.
Brodmann areas 3, 1 and 2 comprise the primary somatosensorycortex of the human brain. Because Brodmann sliced the brain somewhat obliquely, he encountered area 1 first; however, from rostral to caudal the Brodmann designations are 3, 1 and 2, respectively.
Sensory homunculus of the human brain.
This area of cortex, as shown by Wilder Penfield and others, has the pattern of a homunculus. That is, the legs and trunk fold over the midline; the arms and hands are along the middle of the area shown here; and the face is near the bottom of the figure. While it is not well-shown here, the lips and hands are enlarged on a proper homunculus, since a large number of neurons in the cerebral cortex are devoted to processing information from these areas.
Some of these areas were later associated to nervous functions, such as areas 41 and 42 in the temporal lobe (related to hearing), areas 1, 2 and 3 in the postcentral gyrus of the parietal lobe (the somatosensory region), and the areas 17 and 18 in the occipital lobe (the primary visual areas).
Brodmann studied medicine in Munich, Würzburg, Berlin and Freiburg, where he received his medical diploma in 1895.
Korbinian Brodmann, Vergleichende Lokalisationslehre der Grosshirnrinde in ihren Prinzipien dargestellt auf Grund des Zellenbaues, Johann Ambrosius Barth Verlag, Leipzig, 1909.
Feeds |
Contact