precuneus
Sign in to saveIn neuroanatomy, the precuneus is the portion of the superior parietal lobule on the medial surface of each brain hemisphere. It is located in front of the cuneus (the upper portion of the occipital lobe). The precuneus is bounded in front by the marginal branch of the cingulate sulcus, at the rear by the parieto-occipital sulcus, and underneath by the subparietal sulcus. It is involved with episodic memory, visuospatial processing, reflections upon self, and aspects of consciousness.
Key facts
- Brain.Name
- Precuneus
- Brain.Latin
- praecuneus
- Brain.Image
- Sobo 1909 624 - Precuneus.png
- Brain.Caption
- Medial surface of left cerebral hemisphere. (Precuneus visible at top left.) (Anterior to the right.)
- Brain.Image2
- Precuneus.png
- Brain.Caption2
- Sagittal MRI slice with the precuneus shown in red. (Anterior to the left.)
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- Commons category
- Precuneus
- NCI Thesaurus ID
- C112399
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~11 min read
Article
17 sectionsContents
- Structure
- Subdivisions
- Subcortical connections
- Function
- Self
- Memory
- Visuospatial
- Executive functions
- Consciousness
- Default network
- Parietal prefrontal central hub
- Correlation of grey matter volume and subjective happiness score
- Impact of mindfulness
- Other animals
- Additional images
- References
- External links
In neuroanatomy, the precuneus is the portion of the superior parietal lobule on the medial surface of each brain hemisphere. It is located in front of the cuneus (the upper portion of the occipital lobe). The precuneus is bounded in front by the marginal branch of the cingulate sulcus, at the rear by the parieto-occipital sulcus, and underneath by the subparietal sulcus. It is involved with episodic memory, visuospatial processing, reflections upon self, and aspects of consciousness.
The location of the precuneus makes it difficult to study. Furthermore, it is rarely subject to isolated injury due to strokes, or trauma such as gunshot wounds. This has resulted in it being "one of the less accurately mapped areas of the whole cortical surface". While originally described as homogeneous by Korbinian Brodmann, it is now appreciated to contain three subdivisions.