The bilateral Left Cerebrum.Temporal Lobe.Sub-Gyral.Gray Matter.Brodmann area 20 corresponds primarily to the inferior temporal gyrus cortex, a ventral temporal region involved in high-level visual processing and object recognition. Histologically defined by its distinct cytoarchitecture, Brodmann area 20 contains association neurons that integrate complex visual input from occipital and other temporal regions, contributing to the identification of faces, scenes, and semantic aspects of objects. Functionally, it participates in ventral visual stream (“what” pathway) processing, supports aspects of visual memory and conceptual knowledge, and is often implicated in neuroimaging studies of semantic processing and category-specific recognition. There is no direct Wikipedia article for this exact Talairach-defined region; a closely related structure is Brodmann area 20.
The bilateral left temporal sub-gyral gray matter of Brodmann area 20 (inferior temporal cortex, including fusiform/ventral temporal regions) has been repeatedly implicated in genetic and GWAS-based studies of higher-order visual processing, semantic memory, and neuropsychiatric risk. Twin and heritability studies indicate substantial genetic control over temporal lobe cortical thickness and surface area, with common variants in genes such as HMGA2, FOXO3, and IGF1 linked to global and regional temporal morphology, while large consortia (e.g., ENIGMA) have reported genome-wide significant associations between temporal cortical measures and loci near MIR137, TCF4, and other neurodevelopmental genes implicated in schizophrenia and major depression. Variants in APOE (particularly ε4) and other Alzheimer’s disease risk genes (e.g., CLU, PICALM, BIN1) are associated with structural and functional changes in inferior and ventral temporal regions, including BA20, paralleling episodic and semantic memory decline. Autism spectrum disorder and developmental language disorder genetics converge on genes affecting synaptic development (e.g., CNTNAP2, NRG3, SHANK family), with imaging-genetics work linking such variants to altered activation and connectivity in inferior and fusiform temporal cortices during face, object, and language tasks. GWAS of face recognition, reading ability, and high-level visual/semantic traits have identified polygenic influences on ventral temporal structures encompassing BA20, although individual loci are often shared with broader cortical networks rather than uniquely restricted to this area.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 171
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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