The right cuneus is a medial occipital lobe structure defined in the AAL2 atlas as part of the primary and secondary visual cortices, lying between the parieto‑occipital sulcus and the calcarine fissure. It corresponds largely to Brodmann areas 17, 18, and 19 on the right hemisphere and participates in early-stage visual processing, including basic feature detection (orientation, contrast, spatial frequency) and integration of visual information for spatial attention and visuomotor coordination. The right cuneus contributes to processes such as visual perception of the contralateral (left) visual field, visuospatial analysis, and modulation of visual attention by higher-order networks, with functional connectivity to dorsal visual stream regions, parietal cortex, and frontal eye fields. A related article is Cuneus.
Genetic associations involving the right cuneus, as defined in the AAL2 atlas, largely emerge from imaging genetics and GWAS of brain structure and function rather than region-specific candidate gene studies. Variants in genes influencing cortical structure (such as those near HMGA2, FOXP2, CENPW, and DACT1) have been linked in large MRI-based GWAS to occipital and visual cortical thickness and surface area, which encompass cuneus regions, although effects are typically bilateral and not strictly lateralized to the right side. Functional imaging genetics studies have implicated the cuneus in visual processing, attention, and default-mode network activity, with polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder showing associations with altered occipital/cuneus activation and morphology, but these findings generally treat the cuneus as part of broader networks rather than an isolated locus of genetic risk. In neurodevelopmental and psychiatric GWAS, risk variants for disorders such as schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and ADHD have been associated with changes in occipital and posterior cortical metrics, including cuneus volume or connectivity, yet no robust, replicated single-gene or single-SNP associations specifically targeting the right cuneus in AAL2 have been established. Overall, current evidence supports the right cuneus as a downstream target of widespread polygenic influences on cortical development, visual and attentional networks, and psychiatric vulnerability, rather than a primary focus of region-specific genetic effects.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 5012
Hemisphere: right
Atlas: AAL2
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Wali Sidiqyar*, Gaurav Rudravaram*, Elyssa M. McMaster, Trent M. Schwartz, Adam M. Saunders, Kurt G. Schilling, Bennett A. Landman "Introducing SPINS: A Shared Public Visualization Library of Neuroanatomical Structures." Medical Imaging with Deep Learning- short paper
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