The right Frontal Sup Medial region, as defined in the AAL2 atlas, corresponds primarily to the medial portion of the superior frontal gyrus in the right hemisphere, encompassing parts of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and often overlapping with regions traditionally labeled as medial prefrontal cortex and supplementary motor area. This area is implicated in higher-order executive functions, including decision making, cognitive control, performance monitoring, and aspects of self-referential processing, as well as in the regulation of emotion and social cognition through its connections with limbic and other prefrontal regions. Functionally, it participates in large-scale networks such as the default mode and frontoparietal control networks, integrating internal states with goal-directed behavior. There is no dedicated Wikipedia entry for “Frontal Sup Medial (Right)” in AAL2; a closely related and encompassing structure is the Medial prefrontal cortex.
The right medial superior frontal region (often encompassing parts of medial prefrontal cortex and supplementary motor areas in the AAL2 atlas) has been implicated in several genetic and GWAS-based findings, primarily through imaging genetics and large-scale brain morphology studies rather than locus-specific analyses. Variants near genes such as HMGA2, IGF1, and those in the 17q21.31 region have been associated with global and frontal cortical surface area and thickness, which include medial superior frontal parcels, in cohorts like ENIGMA and UK Biobank. Polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder show associations with altered volume or cortical thickness in medial prefrontal and superior frontal regions, with schizophrenia risk alleles particularly linked to reduced frontal gray matter. GWAS of cognitive traits and educational attainment have identified variants (e.g., near genes such as MAPT, KIAA0319, and multiple synaptic/neuronal genes) whose polygenic burden correlates with structural and functional measures in medial frontal cortex, including the right superior medial frontal area. Additionally, risk variants for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder have been indirectly linked to altered activation and connectivity of medial superior frontal regions in task-based and resting-state fMRI, suggesting that common neuropsychiatric risk alleles converge on this region’s function rather than pointing to single, region-specific genes.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 2602
Hemisphere: right
Atlas: AAL2
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Full Quality Version: Download MP4
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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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