GetWiki

{{Short description|Part of the anatomy of the brain}}

factoids

File:Human temporal lobe areas.png|thumb|red:Brodmann area 41,green:Brodmann area 42,note 1: BA41 is bounded medially by Brodmann area 52 and laterally by BA42,note 2: pSTG is posterior part of the superior temporal gyrussuperior temporal gyrusIn human brain anatomy, an operculum (Latin, meaning "little lid") ({{plural form}}: opercula), may refer to the frontal, temporal, or parietal operculum, which together cover the insula as the opercula of insula.{{harvnb|Dorland|2012|p=1328}} It can also refer to the occipital operculum, part of the occipital lobe.The insular lobe is a portion of the cerebral cortex that has invaginated to lie deep within the lateral sulcus. It sits like an island (the meaning of insular) almost surrounded by the groove of the circular sulcus and covered over and obscured by the insular opercula.A part of the parietal lobe, the frontoparietal operculum, covers the upper part of the insular lobe from the front to the back.{{harvnb|Dorland|2012| p=1327}} The opercula lie on the precentral and postcentral gyri (on either side of the central sulcus).BOOK, Joseph M. Tonkonogy, Antonio E. Puente, Localization of Clinical Syndromes in Neuropsychology and Neuroscience,weblink 12 October 2012, 23 January 2009, Springer Publishing Company, 978-0-8261-1967-4, 392, The part of the parietal operculum that forms the ceiling of the lateral sulcus functions as the secondary somatosensory cortex.

Development

Normally, the insular opercula begin to develop between the 20th and the 22nd weeks of pregnancy. At weeks 14 to 16 of fetal development, the insula begins to invaginate from the surface of the immature cerebrum of the brain, until at full term, the opercula completely cover the insula.BOOK, Larroche JC, 1977, Development of the central nervous system, Developmental Pathology of the Neonate, Amsterdam, Excerpta Medica, 319–27, 978-90-219-2107-5, , as cited in note 3 of JOURNAL, Chen CY, Zimmerman RA, Faro S, etal, MR of the cerebral operculum: abnormal opercular formation in infants and children, American Journal of Neuroradiology, 17, 7, 1303–11, August 1996, 8871716,weblink This process is called opercularization.Cheng-Yu Chen, Robert A. Zimmerman, Scott Faro, Beth Parrish, Zhiyue Wang, Larissa T. Bilaniuk, Ting-Ywan Chou. MR of the Cerebral Operculum. AJNR 16:1677–1687, Sep 1995 0195-6108/95/1608–1677 American Society of Neuroradiology

Case reports

Albert Einstein's brain

Opinions differ on whether Albert Einstein's brain possessed parietal opercula. Falk, et al. claim that the brain actually did have parietal opercula,{{harvnb|Falk|Lepore|Noe|2013|p=22 }} while Witelson et al. claim that it did not.JOURNAL, Witelson SF, Kigar DL, Harvey T, The exceptional brain of Albert Einstein, Lancet, 353, 9170, 2149–53, June 1999, 10382713, 10.1016/S0140-6736(98)10327-6, Einstein's lower parietal lobe (which is involved in mathematical thought, visuospatial cognition and imagery of movement) was 15% larger than average.weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070326211017weblink">Witelson's measurement

See also

• Circular sulcus of insula
• Sulcus lateralis

Notes

{{Reflist}}

References

• BOOK, Dorland, Dorlands Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 32nd, 2012, Elsevier Health Sciences, 978-1-4160-6257-8,
• JOURNAL, Falk D, Lepore FE, Noe A, The cerebral cortex of Albert Einstein: a description and preliminary analysis of unpublished photographs, Brain, 136, Pt 4, 1304–27, April 2013, 23161163, 3613708, 10.1093/brain/aws295,

{{Cerebral cortex}}