Association
Areas
The projection areas take up less
than one-fourth of the human cortex. The remaining areas were traditionally
called “association areas” and were implicated in higher men-tal functions like
thinking, remembering, and speaking. The idea behind the “associa-tion” label
was that these areas provided the links—the associations—making these higher
functions possible.
More recent research confirms
that these regions are involved in higher mental functions but has made it
clear that we need to subdivide the association areas. We also now know that
some sites within the cortex’s association areas function as additional
projection areas, over and above those we’ve just described.
For example, in front of the
primary motor projection area, nonprimary
motor areas appear critical for initiating and coordinating complex, skilled
movements. On the sensory side, each sensory modality may have dozens of
secondary projection areas located in the temporal and parietal lobes. What’s
more, each of these areas shows its own mapping and is involved in the
processing of different aspects of sensation. Indeed, the cortex seems to have
at least 25 nonprimary projection areas for vision, each specialized for a
different visual quality such as form, color, or movement (Gazzaniga et al.,
2002).
Related Topics
Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, DMCA Policy and Compliant
Copyright © 2018-2024 BrainKart.com; All Rights Reserved. Developed by Therithal info, Chennai.