Brodmann areas: tap a number to see the gyrus that holds it
Brodmann areas are numbered regions of the cerebral cortex that the German anatomist Korbinian Brodmann mapped in 1909 by how their nerve cells are arranged in layers (cytoarchitecture), not by the folds on the surface. [1]
Areas are drawn by cell layers, not by gyri; borders are not drawn here; lit: the gyri that hold most of each area.
The 3D brain needs JavaScript. The table below still names the gyrus that holds each area.
The brain starts seen from the left. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom; tap a number in the table to light the gyri that hold that area. Areas on the inner face (the cingulate areas, 17) show best with the Side slice.
Lit: the gyrus or gyri that hold most of the area you tap, as whole shapes. A Brodmann area rarely fills a gyrus exactly and often runs on into the next one or onto the brain's inner face, so the lit shape is where to look, not the area's border. Where the atlas draws a lobe as one shape (the occipital lobe for areas 17–19) the whole lobe is lit. Rows for areas with no shape in this atlas, or not found in humans, say so and light nothing. [1]
The Brodmann areas, by number
Tap a row, or move to its number with Tab and press Enter, to light the gyri that hold that area. A row with its own page (Broca's area, the visual cortex …) links it.
The parts of the precentral gyrus not taken by area 4, and the back of the superior and middle frontal gyri; on the inner face it reaches down to the cingulate sulcus.Lights: precentral gyrus, superior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus.
Superior parietal lobule on the outer face; on the inner face it is the precuneus, which has no shape of its own in this atlas.Lights: superior parietal lobule.
Superior and middle frontal gyri, just in front of area 6; the frontal eye fields lie where the middle frontal gyrus meets the precentral gyrus.Lights: superior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus.
Middle frontal gyrus (its lateral part, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and the superior frontal gyrus on the inner face (medial prefrontal cortex).Lights: superior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus.
Orbital gyri and gyrus rectus on the underside of the frontal lobe, above the eye sockets, plus the front tip of the superior frontal gyrus.Lights: orbitofrontal cortex.
Occipital lobe, in and around the calcarine fissure on its inner face. The atlas draws the occipital lobe as one shape, so the whole lobe is lit.Lights: occipital lobe.
Occipital lobe: parts of the cuneus, the lingual gyrus and the lateral occipital gyrus, around area 17. None of these is its own shape here, so the whole lobe is lit.Lights: occipital lobe.
Occipital lobe: parts of the lingual gyrus, cuneus and the lateral and superior occipital gyri, wrapped around area 18 up to the parieto-occipital sulcus. The whole lobe is lit.Lights: occipital lobe.
Subgenual area (part of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex)
A narrow band at the back of the subcallosal area, under the front end of the corpus callosum, beside the paraterminal gyrus.The subcallosal area is not a separate shape in this atlas, so nothing is lit rather than a guessed spot. Lights nothing.
Part of the subicular complex of the hippocampal formation, on the inner face of the temporal lobe.The presubiculum is not a separate shape in this atlas, so nothing is lit rather than a guessed spot. Lights nothing.
In the rhinal sulcus, in the medial temporal lobe.It lies in a groove (the rhinal sulcus), which has no shape of its own, and the source does not say which bank holds most of it, so nothing is lit. Lights nothing.
In the rhinal sulcus, in the medial temporal lobe.It lies in a groove (the rhinal sulcus), which has no shape of its own, and the source does not say which bank holds most of it, so nothing is lit. Lights nothing.
Superior temporal gyrus, where it turns into the lateral sulcus as the transverse temporal (Heschl's) gyri, which have no shape of their own here.Lights: superior temporal gyrus.
The lowest end of the postcentral gyrus, between the bottom of the central sulcus and the depth of the lateral sulcus, near the insula.Lights: postcentral gyrus.
A small part of the inner (medial) surface of the temporal lobe.The source places it only as a small part of the temporal lobe's inner surface, on no named gyrus with a shape here, so nothing is lit. Lights nothing.
At the junction of the temporal lobe and the insula.It is a strip along the border of two shapes, not on either, so nothing is lit rather than a guessed side. Lights nothing.
Brodmann published his map in 1909 from brain tissue stained with the Nissl method, which shows the cell bodies; areas were told apart by the size, density and layering of their neurons. The same number does not always mean the same area in another species. [1]
The list has gaps: areas 14 and 15 are found only in non-human primates, 49 was described in a rodent, and 50 and 51 are not listed for primates at all, so a human map uses fewer than 52 numbers. [1]
Areas 3, 1 and 2 all lie on the postcentral gyrus and together form the primary somatosensory cortex; from front to back they run 3, 1, 2. The odd order is because Brodmann cut the brain somewhat obliquely and met area 1 first. [1][2]
Several areas are better known by a functional name: 4 is the primary motor cortex, 17 the primary visual cortex (V1), 41 and 42 the auditory cortex, 44 and 45 Broca's area. A functional area and its Brodmann numbers usually overlap but are not always the same patch. [1]
Brain scans can place a Brodmann area only approximately: its actual border in any one brain can be found only by looking at that brain's tissue under a microscope. A more detailed map by von Economo and Koskinas followed in 1925. [1]
Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. The 3D model is the adult male BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); it draws gyri and lobes, not Brodmann areas, so a lit shape shows where an area sits, not its border.