What Functions Does The Parietal Lobe Control

Parietal Lobe: Definition, Functions, and Location

By Olivia Guy-Evans, published April xiii, 2021

by Saul Mcleod, PhD

Parietal Lobe Location in the Brain

What is it?

The parietal lobe of the brain is situated between the frontal and occipital lobes, and above the temporal lobes. The parietal lobes take up premises in both the right and left hemispheres of the brain.

This lobe is especially of import in integrating information from the body's senses to allow united states to build a coherent moving-picture show of the world around usa.

The parietal lobes allow the states to coordinate our movements in response to the objects in our environment through the use of visual pathways – allowing us to process what and where things are.

Functions

Below is a list of some of the associated functions of the parietal lobes:

Perception of the body Perception and integration of somatosensory information (e.thou. touch, pain, pressure and temperature).

Spatial mapping and attention

Visuospatial processing

Coordination of movement

Reading

Writing Number representation (mathematics)

The parietal lobes can be divided into 2 functional areas. The showtime is sensation and perception, which integrates sensory data to develop a single perception (also known every bit cognition).

The second is integrating sensory input, this is mainly visual and aids in constructing spatial maps to represent the world around us. The parietal lobes incorporate several spatial reference maps of the body, which are singled-out and constantly updating as nosotros continue to interact with the globe.

The cortex of the parietal lobes (the outermost part) is known to be involved in processing attentional awareness of the environment, as well as being able to manipulate objects and requite representation to numbers.

Neuropsychologists believe that the left and right side of the parietal lobes play different roles. The left side is believed to be important in keeping track of the location of parts of the trunk which are moving.

The right side, notwithstanding, is believed to be important in helping us keep track of the infinite around u.s..

Substructures of the Parietal Lobe

The parietal lobe is structurally divided into the somatosensory cortex, inferior parietal lobe, superior parietal lobe, and precuneus.

Somatosensory Cortex

The somatosensory cortex'due south chief overall function is to receive and procedure sensory information from the entire body, such as bear upon, temperature, and hurting.

The sensory information is carried to this area of the brain via neural pathways to the spinal cord, brain stem and thalamus, which then project to the somatosensory cortex.

The sensory information and then gets integrated into a representational map of the body within the brain. One of the main responsibilities of the somatosensory cortex is localization of sensations.

This means that it can pinpoint the exact point on the body where awareness is felt. It is also responsible for the perception of different degrees of pressure, for example, beingness able to approximate the weight of objects.

This expanse of the parietal lobe can also perceive the shape and texture of objects through touch, also as aiding with spatial recognition.

Therefore, harm to the somatosensory cortex could issue in difficulties perceiving affect, difficulties recognising objects by bear upon, and difficulty recognising i's own body.

Inferior Parietal Lobe

The inferior parietal lobe is located at the lower end of the parietal lobes (junior meaning 'below' or 'lower' in anatomical terms).

This region is concerned primarily with linguistic communication, mathematical operations, and body image. It is besides important for spatial attention, visuomotor, auditory processing, and has been suggested to exist involved in the perceptions of emotions through facial expressions (Radua et al., 2010).

Damage to this area may result in impairments in speech repetition and existence unable to complete mathematical problems.

Superior Parietal Lobe

In contrast to the inferior parietal lobe, the superior parietal lobe is situated at the top of the lobe (superior meaning 'above' in anatomical terms).

This region is concerned with spatial orientation and sensorimotor integration. It also receives a lot of visual and sensory signals from the easily.

Damage to this surface area may result in the inability to recognize objects by impact, as well as hemispatial neglect (a deficit in attention and sensation of one side of the field of vision).

Precuneus

The precuneus is located on the medial (middle) surface of the parietal lobes. Because of this, it makes it one of the least accurately mapped areas of the cortex.

Operation neuroimaging suggests that the precuneus is involved in tasks such as visuo-spatial imagery (being able to analyze, perceive, and manipulate visual patterns and images), episodic memory retrieval (reliance on the reactivation of sensory data that was nowadays when encoding and processing a memory), and the ability to have first-person perspectives.

This area is besides idea to play a function in reflections of the cocky and consciousness.

It was constitute in a written report that having a sense of self-awareness, through rating i'south personality traits, compared to those judged of others, was related to the precuneus (Lou et al., 2004).

Impairment to the Parietal Lobes

Damage to the parietal lobes may be the issue of conditions such every bit a stroke, vascular disease, or a tumor. It could also have resulted from a traumatic brain injury or an infection.

There are many symptoms that can be associated to damage of the parietal lobes:

Walking unsteadily

Inability to locate and recognize objects, events, and parts of the body – hemispatial neglect.

Disability to focus visual attention

Difficulty discriminating betwixt sensory information.

Disorientation

Lack of coordination

Disrupted ability to read and write, without causing impairments in the ability to talk and understand speech.

Dumb ability to depict.

There are as well functional differences of damage between the left and the right side of the parietal lobes. When the left side is damaged, this tends to crusade more than issues with being able to make precise paw movements, resulting in drawings being clumsy and difficulty writing.

Left side damage can besides cause issues with mathematics (acalculia), too as leading to more linguistic communication disorders (aphasia). A condition called Gerstmann's Syndrome may too occur due to this damage.

Someone with this status may take difficulty identifying parts of their own body, be unable to distinguish the left and correct sides of their body or environment, too as difficulty with mathematics, reading, and writing.

Damage to the right side of the parietal lobes is mostly perceptual. People with this damage may be able to analyze a pic in separate parts only may struggle to integrate these into a whole image.

Right side damage tin also bear upon a person's ability with spatial skills, such as reading a map or completing a coherent drawing.

Finally, right side impairment can affect self-care skills such as washing and dressing, difficulty in constructing things, and contralateral neglect (neglect on the opposing side of the damage, east.yard., damage to the right-side causing neglect on the left side).

Treatment

Handling from parietal lobe damage depends on the extent and location of the damage. Physical, occupational, and oral communication therapy are typical treatments that are utilized for damaged parietal lobes.

These treatments can assist your brain in learning to work effectually the damage. Therapists will help to create situations for the individual to learn how to function in the globe and reminding patients to wait at their bodies when completing movements.

As patients typically have outcome with locating and recognising their bodies, using their other senses, such every bit sight, can assist them role better in the world.

Enquiry Studies

In terms of general parietal lobe role, information technology has been suggested that the posterior part (dorsum) of the parietal cortex may be specialized for storing representations of motor actions (Milner, 1998).
Menon et al., (2000) suggested that the parietal lobe may be involved in our ability to exercise mental arithmetic (mathematics).
Damage to the parietal lobe has shown associations with deficits such as aberrant body image (Kandel, Schwartz & Jessel, 1991).
Weiskrantz (1977) found that left parietal lobe damage was associated with issues with verbal memory and the ability to call up a string of digits.
Garcia-Larrea & Mauguière (2018) plant that damage to parts of the parietal lobes (posterior insula and medial operculum) can lead to a disassociated loss of pain and beingness able to recognise temperature.
Fridriksson et al., (2010) used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and discovered that damage to the left inferior parietal lobes tin can crusade impairments in speech repetition.
Freund (2003) institute that impairment of the anterior (to the front end) parietal lobe can produce somatosensory deficits, including weakened motor control.
They too institute that harm to the posterior (towards the back) parietal lobe tin can crusade issues with virtually all aspects of somatosensory role.
Fouquet et al., (2007) suggested that parietal lobe dysfunction, including the right temporo-parietal region, may be a precursor for the onset of Alzheimer's Disease.
Hale et al., (2007) used functional MRI (fMRI) to appraise the brain functions of those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
They found that parietal regions, associated with completed executive functions, failed to activate in those with ADHD. There is also evidence of correct parietal dysfunction constitute in children who are diagnosed as having ADHD (Vance et al., 2007).
Ferro et al., (2017) used MRI on individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
They found that there were significant reductions in white matter (containing nerve fibers which help transmit signals) and grey affair (important for processing information) in the parietal lobes of those with bipolar disorder.

They suggested that parietal lobe white thing reduction could be an indicator of overall reduced operation in those with bipolar disorder.
Torrey (2007) suggested there may be a link between the junior parietal lobe and schizophrenia. Functional dysfunction in the inferior parietal lobe is linked to sensory integration, body image and the concept of cocky, which are also associated traits of schizophrenia.
Finally, Zhou et al., (2007) studied parietal lobe volumes in those with schizophrenia.

They institute reductions in gray matter volumes in all parietal subregions and white thing volume reductions in the superior parietal gyrus (upper ridge).

They ended that volume reductions in the somatosensory cortices are common with those diagnosed with schizophrenia and can account for some of the associated symptoms.

Virtually the Author

Olivia Guy-Evans obtained her undergraduate caste in Educational Psychology at Edge Loma Academy in 2015. She so received her chief'due south degree in Psychology of Education from the University of Bristol in 2019. Olivia has been working as a support worker for adults with learning disabilities in Bristol for the last four years.

How to reference this article:

Guy-Evans, O. (2021, April 15). Parietal lobe: definition, functions, and location. Simply Psychology. world wide web.simplypsychology.org/parietal-lobe.html

APA Style References

Ferro, A., Bonivento, C., Delvecchio, G., Bellani, One thousand., Perlini, C., Dusi, N., Marinelli, Five., Ruggeri, M., Altamura, C., Crespo-Facorro. & Brambilla, P. (2017). Longitudinal investigation of the parietal lobe anatomy in bipolar disorder and its clan with full general functioning. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 267, 22-31.

Fouquet, M., Villain, N., Chételat, 1000., Eustache, F., & Desgranges, B. (2007). Cerebral imaging and physiopathology of Alzheimer's disease. Psychologie & NeuroPsychiatrie du vieillissement, v(4), 269-79.

Freund, H. J. (2003). Somatosensory and motor disturbances in patients with parietal lobe lesions. Advances in Neurology, 93, 179-193.

Fridriksson, J., Kjartansson, O., Morgan, P. South., Hjaltason, H., Magnusdottir, S., Bonilha, L., & Rorden, C. (2010). Impaired speech repetition and left parietal lobe damage. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(33), 11057-11061.

Garcia-Larrea, 50., & Mauguière, F. (2018). Pain syndromes and the parietal lobe. Handbook of Clinical Neurology, 151, 207-223.

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Menon, V., Rivera, S. M., White, C. D., Glover, G. H., & Reiss, A. Fifty. (2000). Dissociating prefrontal and parietal cortex activation during arithmetic processing. Neuroimage, 12(4), 357-365.

Milner, A. D. (1998). Streams and consciousness: visual awareness and the brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, ii(1), 25-xxx.

Radua, J., Phillips, 1000. L., Russell, T., Lawrence, Due north., Marshall, North., Kalidindi, S., El-Hage, West., McDonald, C., Giampietro, 5., Brammer, David, A. S. & Surguladze, S. A. (2010). Neural response to specific components of fearful faces in salubrious and schizophrenic adults. Neuroimage, 49(1), 939-946.

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Vance, A., Silk, T. J., Casey, M., Rinehart, N. J., Bradshaw, J. L., Bellgrove, Yard. A., & Cunnington, R. (2007). Right parietal dysfunction in children with attention arrears hyperactivity disorder, combined type: a functional MRI report. Molecular Psychiatry, 12(nine), 826-832.

Weiskrantz, L. (1977). Trying to span some neuropsychological gaps between monkey and man. British Journal of Psychology, 68(4), 431-445.

Zhou, S. Y., Suzuki, M., Takahashi, T., Hagino, H., Kawasaki, Y., Matsui, M., Seto, H. & Kurachi, M. (2007). Parietal lobe volume deficits in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Schizophrenia Research, 89(1-three), 35-48.

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