| Inferior parietal lobule | |
|---|---|
 Lateral surface of left cerebral hemisphere, viewed from the side. (Inferior parietal lobule is shown in orange.) | |
.png) Superficial anatomy of the inferior parietal lobule. Purple:Supramarginal gyrus Blue:Angular gyrus LS:Lateral sulcus (Sylvian fissure),CS:Central sulcus,IPS:Intraparietal sulcus,STS:Superior temporal sulcus,PN:Preoccipital notch. | |
| Details | |
| Part of | Parietal lobe |
| Identifiers | |
| Latin | Lobulus parietalis inferior |
| NeuroNames | 107 |
| NeuroLex ID | birnlex_1194 |
| TA98 | A14.1.09.125 |
| TA2 | 5471 |
| FMA | 77536 |
| Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy | |
Theinferior parietal lobule (subparietal district) lies below the horizontal portion of theintraparietal sulcus, and behind the lower part of thepostcentral sulcus. Also known as Geschwind's territory afterNorman Geschwind, anAmericanneurologist, who in the early 1960s recognised its importance.[1] It is a part of theparietal lobe.
It is divided from rostral to caudal into two gyri:
In males, the inferior parietal lobule is significantly more voluminous in the left hemisphere compared to the right. This extreme asymmetry is not present in females and this may contribute to cognitive differences between the sexes.[2]
In macaque neuroanatomy, this region is often divided into caudal and rostral portions, cIPL and rIPL, respectively. The cIPL is further divided into areas Opt and PG whereas rIPL is divided into PFG and PF areas.[3]
Inferior parietal lobule has been involved in theperception of emotions in facial stimuli,[4] and interpretation ofsensory information. The Inferior parietal lobule is concerned withlanguage,mathematical operations, andbody image, particularly thesupramarginal gyrus and theangular gyrus.[5]
Destruction to the inferior parietal lobule of the dominant hemisphere results inGerstmann's syndrome:left–right confusion, fingeragnosia,dysgraphia anddyslexia,dyscalculia,contralateralhemianopia, or lowerquadrantanopia. Destruction to the inferior parietal lobule of the non-dominant hemisphere results intopographic memory loss,anosognosia,construction apraxia,dressing apraxia, contralateralhemispatial neglect, contralateralhemianopia, or lowerquadrantanopia.
Functional imaging experiments suggest that the left anterior supramarginal gyrus (aSMG) of the human inferior parietal lobule exhibits an evolved specialization related to tool use. It is not currently known if this functional specialization is unique to humans as complementary experiments have only been performed with macaque monkeys and not apes. The habitual use of tools by chimpanzees makes the uniqueness of the human aSMG an open question as its function may have evolved prior to the split from our last common ancestor.[6]
This article incorporates text in thepublic domain frompage 823 of the 20th edition ofGray's Anatomy(1918)
General
