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Parietal Lobe

-​ Anatomy

Sub divisions:

The parietal lobe lies between the frontal and occipital lobe. It is demarcated anteriorly by the central
fissure, ventrally by the lateral (Sylvian) fissure, posteriorly by the parietal- occipital sulcus

The parietal lobe can be divided into two functional zones: an anterior zone and a posterior zone. The
anterior zone is the somatosensory cortex; the posterior zone is referred to as the posterior parietal
cortex.

Posterior to the central gyrus is the postcentral gyrus or the Somatosensory cortex. The primary
function of the somatosensory cortex is to receive and process sensory information from the body. One
aspect of the somatosensory system registers the changes outside of the body (external receptors) e.g
temperature change and the other aspect registers changes inside body (internal receptors) e.g
movement of muscles

-​ External receptor: temperature, pressure, texture, pain, shape and size, weight
-​ Internal: Proprioceptors (attached to joints, muscles, ligaments telling the parietal lobe what's
going on; posture and position)

Like the motor cortex of the Frontal lobe, parietal lobe too comprises the cortical homunculus. This
Neurological mapping has been done through stimulating different brain areas and assessing the
sensation produced within the body.

The area allocated for each body part on the parietal lobe isn't in relation to the size of the body part but
how dense neural connections are in that area. For example the lips have more neural connections and
thus are more sensitive than the bicep area.
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Interesting Fact: if you lose a hand, the neurons receptors of the hand in the cortex becomes starved so
they start communicating with the facial neurons ​

Proprioception: ​
Proprioception refers to the body's ability to sense its own position, movement, and spatial orientation
without relying on external stimuli. It is crucial for motor control, coordination, and maintaining balance.
This sensory information is primarily gathered from proprioceptors, specialized sensory receptors located
in muscles, tendons, and joints.

Within the parietal lobe, the primary somatosensory cortex receives input from proprioceptive receptors
and other sensory systems. This cortical region maps the body's surface and internal state, allowing for
precise localization of sensations and movements. Additionally, the parietal lobe collaborates with other
brain areas, such as the motor cortex and cerebellum, to coordinate voluntary movements based on
proprioceptive feedback.​
​
Damage to the parietal lobe can result in proprioceptive deficits, leading to difficulties in spatial
awareness, coordination, and motor control. Patients with parietal lobe lesions may experience
challenges in tasks requiring precise manipulation of objects or navigating through space.

This region guides Spatial orientation (how far to reach to pick up a glass), weight, texture, size of objects
but not what an object is.

Association cortex:

The function of the association cortex depends on the subdivision of the area. ​
​
The superior aspect: The main function is to identify objects. It does so by bringing in the information
together from the parietal lobe and the other three lobes and making sense of it

Supramarginal gyrus: Plays a role in Proprioception; Posture and position (both yours and others to
sense the intent and sense empathy or fear)

Angular gyrus: reading, writing and identifying symbols, word choice ​

This is connected to the Wernicke's area that integrated this information in order to recognise and
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interpret written text and speech​

-​ Functional Aspect

Object Recognition

The spatial information needed to determine the relation between objects is very different from the spatial
information needed to guide eye, head, or limb movements to objects. In the latter case, the visuomotor
control must be viewer-centered; that is, the location of an object and its local orientation and motion must
be determined relative to the viewer. Furthermore, because the eyes, head, limbs, and body are
constantly moving, computations about orientation, motion, and location must take place every time we
wish to undertake an action. Details of object characteristics, such as color, are irrelevant to visuomotor
guidance of the viewer- centered movements; that is, a detailed visual representation is not needed to
guide hand action.

Milner suggests that the brain operates on a “need to know” basis. Having too much information may be
counterproductive for any given system. In contrast with the viewer-centered system, the object-centered
system must be concerned with such properties of objects as size, shape, color, and relative location so
that the objects can be recognized when they are encountered in different visual contexts or from different
vantage points. In this case, the details of the objects themselves (color, shape) are important. Knowing
where the red cup is relative to the green one requires identifying each cup.

Although able to recognize objects shown in familiar views, patients having parietal lobe lesions are badly
impaired at recognizing objects shown in unfamiliar views

Sensorimotor Transformation

When we move toward objects, we must integrate the movements of different body parts (eyes, body,
arm, and so forth) with the sensory feedback of what movements are actually being made and the plans
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to make the movements. As we move, the locations of our body parts change and must constantly be
updated so that we can make future movements smoothly. These neural calculations are called
sensorimotor transformation. Cells in the posterior parietal cortex produce both the movement-related and
the sensory-related signals to make these transformations.

Another aspect of sensorimotor transformation is movement planning. Although less is known about the
role of the parietal cortex in planning, Richard Andersen and his colleagues have shown that area PRR is
active when a subject is preparing and executing a movement. Importantly, PRR is coding not the limb
variables required to make the movement but rather the desired goal of the movement. Thus, the goal of
grasping a cup, for example, is coded rather than the details of the movements toward the cup.

-​ Impairments

Somatosensory threshold ​
Damage to the postcentral gyrus is typically associated with marked changes in somatosensory
thresholds. The most thorough studies of these changes were done by Josephine Semmes and her
colleagues on World War II veterans with missile wounds to the brain and by Suzanne Corkin and her co
workers on patients who had undergone cortical surgery for the relief of epilepsy.

Both research groups found that lesions of the postcentral gyrus produced abnormally high sensory
thresholds, impaired position sense, and deficits in stereognosis (tactile perception). For example, in the
Corkin study, patients performed poorly at detecting a light touch to the skin (pressure sensitivity), at
determining if they were touched by one or two sharp points (two-point sensitivity) and at localizing points
of touch on the skin on the side of the body contralateral to the lesion. If blindfolded, the patients also had
difficulty in reporting whether the fingers of the contralateral hand were passively moved.

Lesions of the postcentral gyrus may also produce a symptom called afferent paresis. Movements of the
fingers are clumsy because the person has lost the necessary feedback about their exact position.​
​
Somatoperceptual Disorder ​
​
Astereognosis (from the Greek stereo, meaning “solid”), is the inability to recognize the nature of an
object by touch. This disturbance can be demonstrated in tests of tactile perception of object qualities. In
these tests, objects are placed on the palms of blindfolded subjects or the subjects are told to handle
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shapes. The task is to match the original shape or object to one of several alternatives solely on the basis
of tactile information.

A second somatoperceptual disorder, simultaneous extinction, can be demonstrated only by a special

testing procedure. The logic of this test is that a person is ordinarily confronted by an environment in
which many sensory stimuli impinge simultaneously, yet the person is able to distinguish and perceive
each of these individual sensory impressions. Thus, a task that presents stimuli one at a time represents
an unnatural situation that may underestimate sensory disturbances or miss them altogether.

To offer more-complicated sensory stimulation, two tactile stimuli are presented simultaneously to the
same or different body parts. The objective of such double simultaneous stimulation is to uncover those
situations in which both stimuli would be reported if applied singly, but only one would be reported if both
were applied together. A failure to report one stimulus is usually called extinction and is most commonly
associated with damage to the somatic secondary cortex (areas PE and PF ), especially in the right
parietal lobe.​
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Contralateral neglect​
Case: Mr. P. neglected the left side of his body and of the world. When asked to lift up his arms, he failed
to lift his left arm but could do so if one took his arm and asked him to lift it. When asked to draw a clock
face, he crowded all the numbers onto the right side of the clock. When asked to read compound words
such as “ice cream” and “football,” he read “cream” and “ball.” When he dressed, he did not attempt to put
on the left side of his clothing (a form of dressing apraxia) and, when he shaved, he shaved only the right
side of his face. He ignored the tactile sensation on the left side of his body. Finally, he appeared unaware
that anything was wrong with him and was uncertain about what all the fuss was about (anosognosia).
Collectively, these symptoms are referred to as contralateral neglect. He was impaired at combining
blocks to form designs (constructional apraxia) and was generally impaired at drawing freehand with
either hand, at copying drawings, or at cutting out paper figures. When drawing, he often added extra
strokes in an effort to make the pictures correct, but the drawings generally lacked accurate spatial
relations. In fact, patients showing neglect commonly fail to complete the left side of the drawing, as
illustrated​
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A recent review by Argye Hillis concludes that both the right intraparietal sulcus (roughly dividing PE and
PF) and the right angular gyrus are necessary for contralateral neglect. ​
​
Why does neglect arise? The two main theories argue that neglect is caused by either (1) defective
sensation or perception or (2) defective attention or orientation. The strongest argument favoring the
theory of defective sensation or perception is that a lesion to the parietal lobes, which receive input from
all the sensory regions, can disturb the integration of sensation into perception. Derek Denny-Brown and
Robert Chambers termed this function morphosynthesis and its disruption amorphosynthesis.​
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Apraxia

Apraxia is a disorder of movement in which the loss of skilled movement is not caused by weakness, an
inability to move, abnormal muscle tone or posture, intellectual deterioration, poor comprehension, or
other disorders of movement such as tremor. Among the many types of apraxia, we shall focus on two:
ideomotor apraxia and constructional apraxia.

In ideomotor apraxia, patients are unable to copy movements or to make gestures (for example, to wave
“hello”). Patients with left posterior parietal lesions often present ideomotor apraxia. Patients with
left-parietal-lobe lesions are grossly impaired at this task, whereas people with right-parietal-lobe lesions
perform the task normally.

In constructional apraxia, a visuomotor disorder, spatial organization is disordered. Patients with

constructional apraxia cannot assemble a puzzle, build a treehouse, draw a picture, or copy a series of
facial movements . Constructional apraxia can develop after injury to either parietal lobe, although debate
over whether the symptoms are the same after left- and right-side lesions is considerable . Nonetheless,
constructional apraxia often accompanies posterior parietal lesions.