Bilateral Right Cerebrum.Frontal Lobe.Middle Frontal Gyrus.Gray Matter.Brodmann area 47 corresponds to portions of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex involved in high-level associative and integrative processing. Brodmann area 47 is cytoarchitectonically defined by its granular frontal cortex characteristics and is implicated in language-related functions such as semantic processing, as well as in emotional evaluation, reward-based decision making, and aspects of social cognition. Functionally, this region participates in integrating multimodal sensory information with internal states to guide goal-directed behavior, modulate responses to affectively salient stimuli, and support complex cognitive operations requiring flexible updating of associations. There is no direct link for “Brodmann area 47”; a related structure is the Inferior frontal gyrus.
The bilateral right middle frontal gyrus gray matter in Brodmann area 47 (inferior frontal gyrus/ventrolateral prefrontal cortex region in many parcellations) has been implicated in multiple genetic and GWAS-based findings, largely through imaging genetics studies linking common variants to cortical thickness, surface area, or volume. Large-scale brain MRI GWAS (e.g., ENIGMA, UK Biobank) have identified loci near genes such as HMGA2, IGF1, MEF2C, and others that influence frontal cortical morphology, including BA47-adjacent regions; these structural measures in turn show genetic correlations with general cognitive ability, educational attainment, and risk for neuropsychiatric disorders. BA47/inferior frontal regions are consistently involved in language, semantic processing, and inhibitory control, and polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and ADHD have been associated with altered frontal morphology and functional activation in this territory, suggesting that distributed genetic liability for these conditions partly manifests through BA47-related circuits. Candidate-gene and GWAS follow-up studies have linked variants in dopaminergic (e.g., DRD2), serotonergic (e.g., SLC6A4), and glutamatergic pathway genes with prefrontal activation and gray-matter differences during tasks engaging BA47, such as response inhibition and emotional processing, and risk alleles for substance use disorders and impulsivity show associations with structural and functional measures in the right inferior/middle frontal gyrus. Additionally, frontal pole and orbitofrontal GWAS—anatomically overlapping with or adjacent to BA47—highlight genes involved in neurodevelopment (e.g., WNT pathway members, cell-adhesion molecules) that influence local cortical organization, with downstream links to traits such as risk-taking, neuroticism, and social behavior. Overall, genetic influences on the right BA47/middle frontal gyrus region appear highly polygenic, with effects distributed across neurodevelopmental, synaptic, and neurotransmitter-related genes that shape frontal anatomy and function and contribute to vulnerability for psychiatric disorders, cognitive variation, and behavioral control traits.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 302
Hemisphere: bilateral
Atlas: Talairach labels 2mm
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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