This classic Brodmann map names 52 brain regions by cytoarchitecture and links each numbered area to typical sensory, motor, or cognitive roles.
When people talk about the cerebral cortex, they often reach for one shared map: Brodmann’s numbered areas. This map groups patches of cortex into regions based on how the cells are layered and arranged. Even with modern scanners and high-resolution atlases, those simple numbers still show up in papers, radiology reports, and lecture slides.
Knowing the brodmann areas list is handy for students, clinicians, and researchers who want a common language for linking anatomy to function. You do not need to memorize every one of the 52 areas to get value from the map. A solid grasp of the main clusters already helps you follow imaging studies, understand lesion patterns, and talk through symptoms with more precision.
Why This Cortical Map Still Matters
The map comes from Korbinian Brodmann, a German neurologist who stained and examined human and primate cortex in the early 1900s. He noticed that the thickness and cell types of the six cortical layers changed sharply at certain borders. He drew those borders on brain diagrams and assigned each distinct patch a number from 1 to 52, creating the scheme that still underpins many neuroanatomy courses.
Later work has refined some borders and split several of the original areas into subregions, yet Brodmann’s numbering remains a common reference in teaching and functional imaging. Even modern atlases based on MRI and 3D reconstruction still publish modified Brodmann style maps to keep the link with this older system. The list gives you an anatomical starting point; function comes from experiments, clinical observation, and connectivity studies layered on top of that scaffold.
Brodmann Areas List Overview
Different textbooks present the Brodmann numbering in slightly different ways, and some skip regions that do not appear clearly in the human cortex. The table below gathers many of the best known areas, grouped roughly by function. It is not the final word on every boundary, yet it captures the numbers you are most likely to meet in teaching labs and journal articles.
| Area Or Group | Main Function | Typical Lobe Or Region |
|---|---|---|
| 1, 2, 3 | Primary somatosensory processing for touch, position, and vibration | Postcentral gyrus of the parietal lobe |
| 4 | Primary motor control for voluntary movement | Precentral gyrus of the frontal lobe |
| 5, 7 | Somatosensory association, body schema, and spatial processing | Superior parietal lobule |
| 6 | Premotor and supplementary motor planning | Frontal lobe anterior to area 4 |
| 17 | Primary visual input from the lateral geniculate nucleus | Calcarine cortex of the occipital lobe |
| 18, 19 | Visual association, motion and form processing | Occipital visual association cortex |
| 41, 42 | Primary and secondary auditory processing | Transverse temporal gyri in the superior temporal lobe |
| 22 | Auditory association; includes Wernicke language region in the dominant hemisphere | Posterior superior temporal gyrus |
| 44, 45 | Speech production and articulation planning (Broca region) | Inferior frontal gyrus of the dominant hemisphere |
| 9, 10, 11, 46, 47 | Prefrontal networks for planning, working memory, decision making, and social judgment | Frontal lobe anterior to premotor regions |
| 23, 24, 25, 32 | Cingulate regions linked to emotion, motivation, and autonomic responses | Cingulate gyrus and subgenual cortex |
| 28, 34, 35, 36 | Medial temporal memory and olfactory association | Parahippocampal and entorhinal regions |
When you look at the full numbering scheme, you will see that not every area has a single, simple label. Some regions, such as area 20 or area 37, take part in more than one visual or language task. Others, such as area 25 in the subgenual cingulate, appear frequently in mood and affective research. Rather than tying each number to one task, it helps to think in terms of dominant roles and typical networks.
Modern descriptions often cross-reference Brodmann numbers with sulcal and gyral names to reduce confusion. Online resources such as Kenhub’s overview of Brodmann areas show this relationship clearly, pairing each area with standard surface anatomy and MRI slices.
Brodmann Areas Listing By Brain Lobe
A quick way to digest this map is to cluster numbers by lobe. This section walks through the main lobes and picks out headline areas that students and clinicians meet often. The aim is not to replace a detailed atlas, but to give you a mental scaffold that makes new facts easier to place.
Frontal Lobe Areas
The frontal lobe covers primary motor cortex, premotor and supplementary motor regions, and broad stretches of prefrontal cortex. Area 4 anchors the primary motor strip, sending corticospinal and corticobulbar fibres that drive movement. Area 6 wraps around it and handles preparation of movements, including learned sequences and bimanual tasks.
More anteriorly, areas 8, 9, 10, 11, 46, and 47 belong to prefrontal cortex. These regions help with planning, working memory, rules, and social judgment. On the inferior frontal gyrus of the dominant hemisphere, areas 44 and 45 are grouped under the label Broca area. Lesions here often produce non-fluent speech with partial preservation of comprehension, while damage on the right side may disturb prosody and emotional tone in language.
Parietal Lobe Areas
The classic sensory strip of areas 3, 1, and 2 runs along the postcentral gyrus. Area 3 receives dense thalamic input and is sometimes taken as the true primary somatosensory cortex, with areas 1 and 2 integrating features such as texture, size, and shape. Together they build a detailed map of the body surface.
Areas 5 and 7 sit just behind this strip in the superior parietal lobule. They combine somatosensory and visual information to build body schema and hand-eye coordination. More inferior parietal regions, including areas 39 and 40, link visual, auditory, and somatosensory streams. On the dominant side these areas contribute to language, reading, and arithmetic. On the non-dominant side they contribute strongly to spatial attention and awareness of the body in space.
Temporal Lobe Areas
The temporal lobe hosts both auditory cortex and major parts of the limbic memory system. Areas 41 and 42 lie on the transverse temporal gyri and receive input from the medial geniculate nucleus, forming the core of primary and secondary auditory cortex. Surrounding regions, including area 22 on the superior temporal gyrus, draw meaning from complex sounds and spoken language.
In the dominant hemisphere, the posterior part of area 22 includes Wernicke language cortex. Damage there often causes fluent aphasia with impaired comprehension, paraphasias, and difficulty repeating words or sentences. More anterior and inferior temporal areas, such as 20 and 21, assist with object recognition and high-level visual association.
Medial temporal Brodmann areas, especially 28, 34, 35, and 36, link strongly to the hippocampal formation and memory consolidation. These regions also receive olfactory input and are vulnerable in conditions such as temporal lobe epilepsy and early Alzheimer pathology.
Occipital Lobe Areas
Area 17 sits on either side of the calcarine sulcus and forms primary visual cortex. Each hemisphere contains a map of the contralateral visual field, with high foveal resolution near the occipital pole. Lesions here cause homonymous visual field defects aligned with the retinotopic map.
Areas 18 and 19 surround primary visual cortex and contribute to motion perception, form processing, and complex visual features. They send signals forward to temporal and parietal association zones, helping to build pathways concerned with “what” and “where” aspects of vision. These regions show how the numbering scheme interacts with modern network models rather than competing with them.
Limbic And Cingulate Areas
Several Brodmann areas cluster around the cingulate gyrus and medial frontal regions. Areas 23 and 31 lie more posteriorly and link to memory and internally directed thought, while 24 and 32 lie more anteriorly and connect emotion with action. Area 25, the subgenual cingulate region, often appears in studies of mood disorders and deep brain stimulation targets.
Areas in the parahippocampal and entorhinal regions, especially 28, 34, 35, and 36, sit at the interface between neocortex and hippocampus. They receive processed sensory input and funnel it toward structures that handle explicit memory, providing a bridge between detailed perception and stored experience.
How Researchers Use This Numbering Today
Neuroscientists still rely on the brodmann areas list as a shared shorthand, even though they now work with three-dimensional atlases and probabilistic maps. Functional MRI studies frequently report activation in “BA 17” or “BA 44” so that readers can connect findings with decades of prior work. At the same time, newer atlases, such as the Allen Human Brain Atlas, provide cell-level and gene-expression detail that goes far beyond the original plates.
Histological and imaging research has revised some parts of the map. Dorsal visual cortex next to classic area 18, for example, has been split into new cytoarchitectonic fields in quantitative studies. Clinical teams also refer to these numbers when planning neurosurgery or interpreting structural and functional imaging. Knowing that an epileptic focus lies in area 4 versus area 6, or that a tumour encroaches on 44 and 45, gives quick clues about likely motor or language risks if tissue is removed.
| Functional System | Key Brodmann Areas | Typical Clinical Or Research Use |
|---|---|---|
| Primary motor | 4 | Mapping voluntary movement and corticospinal pathways |
| Primary somatosensory | 3, 1, 2 | Interpreting sensory loss patterns after stroke or injury |
| Visual | 17, 18, 19 | Relating visual field defects to occipital lesions |
| Auditory | 41, 42, 22 | Studying speech perception and sound processing |
| Language production | 44, 45 | Assessing speech deficits and planning surgical approaches |
| Prefrontal control | 9, 10, 11, 46, 47 | Research on decision making, working memory, and social behavior |
| Cingulate and limbic | 23, 24, 25, 32 | Linking mood, motivation, and autonomic responses to anatomy |
This functional view helps students move beyond raw memorization. When you recognise that numbers 3, 1, and 2 live on the postcentral gyrus and share somatosensory roles, or that 44 and 45 sit in one inferior frontal language zone, the map begins to feel more intuitive and less like a random catalogue.
Tips For Remembering Brodmann Numbers
Because the full set includes 52 areas, many learners start by pinning down a small core. A common strategy is to master primary regions first: 4 for motor, 3, 1, and 2 for somatosensory, 17 for visual, and 41 and 42 for auditory. Once those anchors feel familiar, you can hang association regions around them.
Mental stories and patterns also help. Grouping 44 and 45 with speech output, 22 with language comprehension, and 39 and 40 with reading and arithmetic gives the dominant hemisphere a clear set of language landmarks. On the medial surface, linking 23, 24, 25, and 32 to cingulate roles provides a compact way to handle emotion and motivation territories.
Drawing the cortex by hand, labelling the numbers, and then relating them to case studies or imaging slices is another strong learning method. Repetition with slight variation works better than staring at a static list. Short, regular practice sessions make the map stick without turning study time into pure rote drill.
Final Notes On This Classic Map
Brodmann’s numbering comes from a century-old set of stained sections, yet it still shapes a large share of modern neuroanatomy teaching and research. The map brings a shared language that bridges microscopic structure, surface anatomy, and functional imaging findings.
If you treat this scheme as a flexible scaffold rather than a rigid set of borders, it pairs well with contemporary network views of the brain. Start with a compact core of primary and language-related areas, then link additional numbers to lobes, gyri, and clinical patterns. Over time, the numbered patches turn from abstract labels into familiar regions that help you read scans, understand symptoms, and follow the literature with far more confidence.