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Frontal Lobe

Occupying roughly thirty percent of the human brain is the  frontal lobe , located at the front of the cerebral cortex behind our eyes. Areas of our frontal lobe are responsible for rational thoughts, developing and acting on plans, some speech, problem solving, working memory, and decision-making. Parts of our frontal lobe direct and maintain our attention and keep ideas in our mind while we are distracted from stimuli around us.

The complexity and organization of our frontal lobe is what makes human unique in the animal kingdom (Bush & Allman, 2004; Schoenemann, Sheehan, & Glotzer, 2005). The frontal lobe helps define who we are as people, such as our personality, emotion, abstract thoughts, impulse control, understanding what other people are thinking, contemplating our own existence, and even behaving according to social norms. Damage to this area would cause us to engage in improper social behavior and be oblivious to how others are judging us. The most famous historical example is the case of Phineas Gage, whom we learned about in Lesson 2.04.

Located in the left frontal lobe, an association area known as  Broca's area , is responsible for controlling the muscles in our mouth involved in speech. Crucial for the production of speech, damage to Broca’s Area would result in  Broca's aphasia .

Motor Cortex

The  motor cortex  sends information to the spinal cord to move the muscles of our body.  Our motor cortex’s responsibilities for voluntary movement are divided down the middle of our body:  The right hemisphere controls our left leg for example, whereas the left hemisphere controls the right.  

Sensory Cortex (Somatosensory cortex)

The  somatosensory cortex  located in the front of the parietal lobe, runs from the top of the brain to the sides and is responsible for our sense of touch from pain to pleasure.  When we feel a type of touch sensation, the information is sent up by sensory neurons to the thalamus and sent to the somatosensory cortex so we can feel it.  The responsibility of touch is divided between the left and right cerebral hemispheres.  The right hemisphere receives touch information from the left side of the body; the left hemisphere receives touch information from the right side of the body.  More sensitive areas, such as our lips and face, have a larger cortical area devoted to them on the somatosensory cortex.

Parietal Lobe

As we just learned, the  parietal lobe  is partially devoted to the sense of touch.  Located in front of the occipital lobe and behind the frontal lobe, the parietal lobe is also extremely important in representing spatial relationships between ourselves and objects in our environment.  Most of the parietal lobe is made up of association areas.

Occipital Lobe

Located in the back of our brain is our  occipital lobe , which is almost exclusively responsible for our sense of vision and visual processing.  Visual areas in the occipital lobe process various properties of a visual image, such as color, motion, and forms. 

The  visual cortex  is the largest area in the occipital lobe where visual information is sent. The visual image, which is relayed from the eye, is projected onto the visual cortex.  Each hemisphere divides the information.  The right hemisphere is responsible for the left visual field, the left hemisphere is responsible for the right visual field.  Take a look to see how our visual cortex works!

Temporal Lobe

Located just above our ears on both sides of our head, the  temporal lobe  is responsible for processing auditory information, memory, and recognizing detailed objects such as faces.  What makes the temporal lobe so unique is that each side is not lateralized. The left temporal lobe is involved in hearing from both the right and left.

The  auditory cortex  is located in our temporal lobe, and is solely responsible for hearing.

The left temporal lobe contains a specialized association area known as  Wernicke's area  that interprets written and spoken language and decodes words and sentences.  While listening to a lecture, piece of music, or reading your favorite novel, you are using Wernicke’s Area.  Damage to this area would result in a lack of comprehension known as  Wernicke's aphasia .

Association Areas

Located within each lobe,  association areas  are responsible for higher mental functioning such as learning, thinking, speaking, and remembering.  The association areas are not involved in primary sensory functions; yet associate various sensory inputs with our stored memories so we can make sense of incoming sensations.

Broca’s Area and Wernicke’s Area are two examples of association areas located in our cerebral cortex.  The angular gyrus, another association area, is located between the occipital lobe, temporal lobe, and lower parietal lobe and is important in the processing of visual and auditory input and comprehension of language.