Parietal lobe: functions, anatomy and curiosities

Lesions in the parietal lobe would prevent us, for example, from being able to get dressed and even orient ourselves to go home. This area of our brain is key to interacting with everything that surrounds us.

Feel a caress or the intensity of a hug. Dance. Orient ourselves in a new city during a trip. Picking up an object and suddenly remembering a happy moment from our past… These and many other types of processes related to sensations, memories and spatial orientation are governed by that very important area of our brain: the parietal lobe.

Every so often neuroscientists surprise us with new discoveries about one of the five brain lobes. Speaking of regions, we could say that one of the most fascinating is that region located just behind the frontal lobe. Its importance lies above all in being the home of most of our perceptual processes.

David Eagleman, one of the most relevant neurologists today, reminds us in Incognito, one of his books that each of us does not perceive things as they are. We see reality as our brain wants. The parietal lobe is that integration area through which much of the information from the rest of the brain regions passes.she is the one who organizes, she is the one who ultimately allows us to feel and understand the reality that surrounds us.

Let’s see more data below.

“What if I told you that the world around you, with its rich colors, textures, sounds and aromas, is an illusion, a spectacle that your brain creates for you? If you could perceive reality as it is, you would be surprised by its colorless, odorless and tasteless silence. Outside your brain, there is only energy and matter.”

– David Eagleman Brain–

Parietal lobe, where is it located?

He Brain is divided into different regions: frontal lobe, parietal, temporal occipital, parietal and insula. The parietal lobe is one of the largest and rests near the top, right in the center of the cerebral cortex. In front of it is the frontal lobe and a little further below are the occipital and temporal lobes.

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In turn, it is separated from the rest of the regions by the parieto-occipital sulcus (which separates it from the frontal lobe) and by the sylvanic fissure, which establishes a limit with the temporal lobe. On the other hand, it is also interesting to remember that each area of our brain is lateralized, that is, they are made up of a right hemisphere and a left hemisphere.

Structures of the parietal lobe

The name of the “parietal” lobe derives from Latin, meaning ‘wall’ or ‘wall’. It symbolizes that intermediate structure located in the center of our brain where a symbolic limit is established, a border where infinite information, processes and connections are crossed.

To better understand the complexity as well as the relevance of this area, let’s see how it is structured below.

Postcentral turn or Brodmann area 3. The primary somatosensory area is located here, responsible for receiving and processing information from the senses.Posterior parietal cortex. This structure is key to processing all the stimuli we see and to coordinate movements.Superior parietal lobe. This structure is key for spatial orientation and fine motor skills.Inferior parietal lobe. This region is one of the most interesting, it is responsible for relating facial expressions to emotions. At the same time, it is also essential to carry out mathematical operations and to execute language or body expression.Primary sensory area . In this area of the temporal lobe we process all information related to the skin: heat, cold, pain…

Functions of the parietal lobe

As we have pointed out, the parietal lobe participates in all those sensory and perceptual processes that are so relevant in our daily lives. Often, to give a very illustrative example of what this structure allows us, the following example is usually offered: A person can trace a letter on our skin with their finger and we are able to recognize it.

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Something so simple in essence involves endless processes: feel the touch on our skin, recognize the movements and associate that sensation and its stroke with a letter of the alphabet. It is fascinating, however, its functions do not end there. Let’s see below what more tasks it allows us:

sensory functions

Thanks to the parietal lobe we can:

Recognize stimuli and know, for example, what they do, what they are like, what memories they bring usknowing what it feels like when we touch them, smell them, feel them… (for example, when we see a cat we can remember those we had in the past, we know what character they have, what it feels like to caress them, etc.). It allows us also knowing what position we are in, recognizing if something or someone is touching us, if we experience cold, heat or some type of pain. It also makes it easier for us, for example, to touch or recognize any part of our body without having to look in a mirror (something essential, for example, when we get dressed).

Cognitive and analytical processes

Studies such as the one carried out at Temple University of Psychology, United States, in 2008, reveal one of the latest discoveries: thanks to advances in neuroimaging techniques, It has been seen that the parietal lobe is key in short-term and working memory as well as episodic memory.

These types of cognitive processes are essential to retain information in the short term and later use it for other behaviors and complex psychological processes, such as decision making or mathematical calculation. At the same time, this brain lobe is essential to think in mathematical symbols, analyze sequences, numbering, etc.

Lesions in the parietal lobe

People with traumatic or organic damage (due to a stroke, for example) to the parietal lobes They show serious problems when it comes to recognizing their bodies, finding their way around a scene, manipulating or reaching for objects, drawing, and grooming themselves... In this way, both apraxias (performing movements voluntarily) and agnosias (recognizing objects) are very common.

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Aphasias or language problems as well as ataxias (problems with body and even visual coordination) are also very recurrent in this type of pathologies associated with lesions in the temporal lobe. To conclude, we could define the parietal lobe as the home where a large part of our sensory processes are based. Our ability to move and interact with the environment and the people around us depends on this structure.