The angular gyrus is a ridge of cortex in the lower part of each parietal lobe, close to the upper edge of the temporal lobe and just behind the supramarginal gyrus. It corresponds to Brodmann area 39. [1]
The 3D brain needs JavaScript. The text below still says where the angular gyrus is and what it does.
Slice
Opens cut by a front (coronal) slice through the angular gyrus. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom, tap any part to name it; .
Takes part in: speech, reading — see every part of each lit together.
Where it is
The inferior parietal lobule, the part of the parietal lobe below the intraparietal sulcus, is made of two gyri: the supramarginal gyrus in front and the angular gyrus behind it. [2]
It arches over the back end of the superior temporal sulcus, the groove between the superior and middle temporal gyri, and behind that sulcus it runs on into the middle temporal gyrus. [2]
Above it, the intraparietal sulcus separates it from the superior parietal lobule. [2][3]
Paired: there is one angular gyrus in each hemisphere; this model lights both. [1][4]
What it does
It is involved in a wide range of processes: language, number processing, spatial cognition, memory retrieval, attention, and theory of mind (working out what other people think). [1]
It is counted with Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas among the classical language areas: it links written words seen by the visual cortex with Wernicke’s area and takes part in reading, writing and the meaning of words. [1][5]
It is one of the hubs of the default mode network, the set of regions most active when a person is awake but not attending to the outside world, for example when recalling memories or daydreaming. [6]
Electrical stimulation of the right angular gyrus during brain surgery has produced out-of-body experiences, which ties this region to the sense of where one’s own body is. [1]
Connections
A branch of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF II) runs from the angular gyrus region forward to the prefrontal cortex. [7]
In the default mode network it works together with the posterior cingulate cortex, the precuneus, the medial prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. [6]
Other names
AG; Brodmann area 39 (BA39). With the supramarginal gyrus it forms the inferior parietal lobule. [8][2]
Size
On this model the left angular gyrus measures about 46 mm front to back, 63 mm top to bottom and 43 mm side to side (the box it fits in, not its volume); the right one is its mirror image. [4]
Centre of the left angular gyrus compared with the centre of the left supramarginal gyrus: 30 mm further back, 10 mm lower, 7 mm closer to the midline; 32 mm apart in a straight line. [4]
Centre of the left angular gyrus compared with the centre of the left superior parietal lobule: 15 mm lower, 25 mm further from the midline; 30 mm apart in a straight line. [4]
Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. The 3D model is the adult male BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); real brains vary in size and shape, so its measurements describe one model, not anyone’s brain.