The bilateral Left Cerebrum.Parietal Lobe.Postcentral Gyrus.Gray Matter.Brodmann area 2 corresponds to a somatosensory cortical region located in the postcentral gyrus of the parietal lobe, forming part of the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) posterior to Brodmann area 3 and anterior to area 1. Brodmann area 2 integrates tactile, proprioceptive, and some nociceptive inputs, contributing to higher-order processing of somatosensory information such as texture, size, and shape discrimination, as well as complex aspects of body position and movement. It receives thalamocortical projections primarily from the ventral posterior nucleus and participates in the somatotopic representation of the contralateral body, with organization into functional columns. This area interacts with adjacent primary and secondary somatosensory fields and higher parietal association cortices to support sensorimotor integration and the perception of object features through active touch. There is no direct Wikipedia article for Brodmann area 2; a closely related structure is the Primary somatosensory cortex.
The bilateral postcentral gyrus (Brodmann area 2) of the parietal lobe, a primary somatosensory region, shows genetic associations mainly through imaging‑genetics and GWAS of cortical morphology, pain processing, and neurodevelopmental or psychiatric traits rather than direct “BA2-only” studies. Large MRI–GWAS consortia (e.g., ENIGMA, UK Biobank–based analyses) have identified loci in genes involved in neurodevelopment, axon guidance, and synaptic function (such as variants near MIR137, NPTN, and multiple 3p, 6q, and 17q loci) associated with thickness or surface area in parietal and specifically postcentral somatosensory cortex, often overlapping with genetic architecture for global cortical measures. Polygenic risk for schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and autism spectrum disorder has been linked to structural or functional changes in postcentral/parietal somatosensory areas, implicating shared neurodevelopmental pathways, while common variants in genes related to nociception and neuroinflammation (for example in TRP channels and cytokine‑related genes) have been associated with altered somatosensory cortex responses in chronic pain and migraine cohorts. Somatosensory cortex involvement has also been reported in GWAS and candidate‑gene imaging studies of tactile perception, motor skill learning, and body‑representation phenotypes, suggesting that BA2 is a downstream neuroanatomical target of widespread polygenic influences rather than a region with a single, specific genetic determinant.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 891
Hemisphere: bilateral
Atlas: Talairach labels 1mm
Full Quality Version: Download MP4
Full Quality Version: Download MP4
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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