The bilateral Left Cerebrum.Parietal Lobe.Precuneus refers to the precuneus region located medially within the superior parietal lobule of the left cerebral hemisphere, with its contralateral homologue in the right hemisphere forming a functionally integrated pair. This area lies on the medial surface of the parietal lobe between the marginal branch of the cingulate sulcus and the parieto-occipital sulcus, and it is strongly interconnected with adjacent parietal cortex, medial prefrontal regions, posterior cingulate cortex, and subcortical structures. The precuneus plays key roles in visuospatial imagery, self-referential processing, aspects of episodic memory retrieval, and is a central hub of the default mode network. It is supplied primarily by branches of the posterior cerebral artery and exhibits high resting metabolic activity, making it particularly relevant in neuroimaging studies of consciousness, cognitive networks, and neurodegenerative disorders.
Precuneus
The precuneus, located in the medial parietal lobe of the left cerebrum, shows multiple genetic associations primarily through imaging–genetics and GWAS of brain structure and function: common variants in genes related to synaptic plasticity, neurodevelopment, and myelination (for example in APOE, CLU, PICALM, BIN1, and other Alzheimer’s disease–risk loci) have been linked to precuneus volume, cortical thickness, metabolism, and connectivity, consistent with the region’s early vulnerability in Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Polygenic risk scores for Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and autism spectrum disorder show associations with altered precuneus structure and default mode network activity, implicating widespread neurodevelopmental and synaptic genes (e.g., CACNA1C, MIR137, GRIN2A, complement pathway genes). Large-scale GWAS of cortical morphology and resting-state networks report significant heritability of precuneus measures and identify loci in pathways involving axon guidance, calcium signaling, and microtubule organization. Additional genetic links involve risk variants for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, epilepsy, and obsessive-compulsive traits, often via changes in parietal and default mode network connectivity, highlighting the precuneus as a genetically sensitive hub for internally directed cognition, self-referential processing, and integration of multimodal information.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 861
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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