Functional areas of the cerebral cortex and cortical syndromes
The functional map of the frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital cortex, hemispheric dominance, the aphasias, neglect, apraxia, Gerstmann and Balint syndromes, visual field defects from the radiations and cortex, and how lesion patterns map to arterial territories, focal seizure semiology and the focal dementias.
Tier 2Medical sciences concept
Written with AI assistance and fact-checked against the sources below. For exam study, not clinical decisions. How notes are made
At a glance
- Primary cortices handle one modality: motor (precentral gyrus, area 4), somatosensory (postcentral, 3-1-2), auditory (Heschl gyrus, 41 and 42), visual (calcarine, 17).
- Association cortex builds higher functions: language, attention, praxis, recognition, planning.
- The dominant hemisphere (left in about 95% of right-handers) holds language, praxis and calculation. The non-dominant hemisphere holds spatial attention and visuospatial skills.
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Sources
- Principles of Neural Science (6th ed.)McGraw Hill (Kandel, Koester, Mack and Siegelbaum, 2021), 2021
- Localization in Clinical Neurology (8th ed.)Wolters Kluwer (Brazis, Masdeu and Biller, 2021), 2021
- Gorno-Tempini ML et al. Classification of primary progressive aphasia and its variants. Neurology 2011;76:1006-14Neurology, 2011
- Rascovsky K et al. Sensitivity of revised diagnostic criteria for the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia. Brain 2011;134:2456-77Brain, 2011
- Last updated
- 14 November 2026
What changed
- 14 November 2026 Personal emails, About story and Australian-style copy