CEREBRAL CORTEX

Functional Divisions of the Cerebral Cortex

The cerebral cortex is responsible for many "higher-order" functions like language and information processing. Language centers are usually found only in the left cerebral hemisphere. For more information on language and differences between the right and left cerebral hemisphere, read about split brain experiments.








Cortical Area                                        Function
Prefrontal Cortex                                 Problem Solving, Emotion, Complex Thought
Motor Association Cortex                Coordination of complex movement
Primary Motor Cortex                         Initiation of voluntary movement
Primary Somatosensory Cortex          Receives tactile information from the body
Sensory Association Area                  Processing of multisensory information
Visual Association Area                          Complex processing of visual information
Visual Cortex                                          Detection of simple visual stimuli
Wernicke's Area                                  Language comprehension
Auditory Association Area                  Complex processing of auditory information
Auditory Cortex                                  Detection of sound quality (loudness, tone)
Broca's Area                                     Speech production