Neuroscience For Kids

Functional Divisions of the Cerebral Cortex

The cerebral cortex is responsible for many "higher-order" functions like language and information processing. Language centers are usually found only in the left cerebral hemisphere. For more information on language and differences between the right and left cerebral hemisphere, read about split brain experiments.

Cortical Area	Function
Prefrontal Cortex	Problem Solving, Emotion, Complex Thought
Motor Association Cortex	Coordination of complex movement
Primary Motor Cortex	Initiation of voluntary movement
Primary Somatosensory Cortex	Receives tactile information from the body
Sensory Association Area	Processing of multisensory information
Visual Association Area	Complex processing of visual information
Visual Cortex	Detection of simple visual stimuli
Wernicke's Area	Language comprehension
Auditory Association Area	Complex processing of auditory information
Auditory Cortex	Detection of sound quality (loudness, tone)
Broca's Area	Speech production and articulation

Broca's Area	Wernicke's Area
Images courtesy of Slice of Life.

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