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Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex

Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex

The somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobes is crucial for interpreting sensory data such as touch, temperature, and proprioception. The somatosensory cortex, situated in the parietal lobes, plays a vital role in interpreting sensory information like touch, temperature, and proprioception—awareness of body position. This specialized brain region features an organized structure wherein neurons at the top primarily process sensations originating from the lower body. In contrast, those at...

Somatosensation

Somatosensation

The somatosensory system relays sensory information from the skin, mucous membranes, limbs, and joints. Somatosensation is more familiarly known as the sense of touch. A typical somatosensory pathway includes three types of long neurons: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary neurons have cell bodies located near the spinal cord in groups of neurons called dorsal root ganglia. The sensory neurons of ganglia innervate designated areas of skin called dermatomes.

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

The cerebral cortex, the brain's outermost layer, is pivotal in processing complex cognitive tasks, emotions, and various sensory inputs and executing voluntary motor activities. This intricate structure is divided into three primary functional areas: the motor areas, sensory areas, and association areas.
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex....

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association areas are regions of the cerebral cortex that do not have a specific sensory or motor function. Instead, they integrate and interpret information from various sources to enable higher cognitive processes such as memory, learning, and decision-making. Some key association areas include the following:
Prefrontal Association Area: This area is located in the frontal lobe and is involved in planning, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. It connects with primary motor areas,...

Vision

Vision

Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 4, 2026

Topographical Estimation of Visual Population Receptive Fields by fMRI

Topographical Estimation of Visual Population Receptive Fields by fMRI

Published on: February 3, 2015

Gaze-dependent topography in human posterior parietal cortex.

Jason D Connolly¹, Quoc C Vuong², Alexander Thiele²

¹Faculty of Medical Sciences, Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HH, UK Current address: Wolfson Research Institute, University of Durham, Thornaby TS17 6BH, UK Current address: Department of Psychology, Durham University Science Site, Durham DH1 3LE, UK.

Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)

|December 20, 2013

Summary

The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) uses head-/body-centered coordinates, not eye-centered ones, to represent visual space. This brain region reorganizes spatial maps based on gaze direction, influencing effector control.

Keywords:

functional magnetic resonance imaging head-centered posterior parietal cortex spatial coordinate frames topographic mapping

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Last Updated: May 4, 2026

Topographical Estimation of Visual Population Receptive Fields by fMRI

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Published on: February 3, 2015

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

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Published on: August 1, 2018

A Large Lateral Craniotomy Procedure for Mesoscale Wide-field Optical Imaging of Brain Activity

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Published on: May 7, 2017

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience
Computational Neuroscience

Background:

The brain transforms visual information from retinal coordinates to effector-centered frames.
The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is a key area involved in this spatial transformation.
Debate exists whether PPC uses retinal/eye-centered or head-/body-centered representations.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the coordinate system used by the PPC for spatial representation.
To differentiate between retinal/eye-centered and head-/body-centered models of PPC function.
To determine how gaze direction influences spatial mapping in the parietal cortex.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to map brain activity.
Subjects performed memory-guided saccades with varying starting gaze positions (left, central, right).
Saccadotopic maps in the PPC were analyzed for spatial reorganization relative to gaze shifts.

Main Results:

Parietal cortex maps showed significant spatial reorganization with subtle changes in starting gaze position.
This reorganization occurred despite constant retinal input and eye movement parameters.
The observed shifts were inconsistent with a purely retinal/eye-centered coordinate system.

Conclusions:

The PPC primarily utilizes head-/body-centered coordinate systems for spatial representation.
Findings support models where parietal cortex integrates visual and motor information for effector-directed actions.
The brain dynamically adjusts spatial representations based on gaze and body orientation.