Farmasevtika instituti farmakologiya va klinik farmatsiya kafedrasi

 
Functions of Specific Cortical Areas 
Studies in human beings have shown that different 
cerebral cortical areas have separate functions. Figure 57-3 is a map of some of these functions as 
determined from electrical stimulation of the cortex in awake patients or during neurological 
examination of patients after portions of the cortex had been removed. The electrically stimulated 

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patients told their thoughts evoked by the stimulation, and sometimes they experienced movements. 
Occasionally they spontaneously emitted a sound or even a word or gave some other evidence of the 
stimulation. Putting large amounts of information together from many different sources gives a more 
general map, as shown in Figure 57-4.
 
Association Areas
Figure 57-4 also shows several large areas of the cerebral cortex that do not 
fit into the rigid categories of primary and secondary motor and sensory areas. These areas are called 
association areas 
because they receive and analyze signals simultaneously from multiple regions of 
both the motor and sensory cortices, as well as from subcortical structures. Yet even the association 
areas have their specializations.
1. Analysis of the Spatial Coordinates of the Body.
An area beginning in the posterior 
parietal cortex and extending into the superior occipital cortex provides continuous analysis of the 
spatial coordinates of all parts of the body, as well as of the surroundings of the body. This area 
receives visual sensory information from the posterior occipital cortex and simultaneous 
somatosensory information from the anterior parietal cortex. From all this information, it computes the 
coordinates of the visual, auditory, and body surroundings.
2. Wernicke’s Area Is Important for Language Comprehension. 
The major area for 
language comprehension, called 
Wernicke’s area, 
lies behind 
the primary auditory cortex in the 
posterior part of the superior gyrus of the temporal lobe. 
We discuss this area much more fully later; it 
is the most important region of the entire brain for higher intellectual function because almost all such 
intellectual functions are language based.