The bilateral Right Cerebrum.Parietal Lobe.Sub-Gyral.Gray Matter.Brodmann area 40 corresponds primarily to the supramarginal gyrus within the inferior parietal lobule, a cortical territory implicated in multimodal sensory integration, language, and praxis. Brodmann area 40 receives convergent input from auditory, somatosensory, and visual association cortices and is anatomically positioned at the posterior end of the lateral fissure, bordering regions involved in language comprehension (e.g., Wernicke’s area) and phonological processing. Functionally, this area contributes to speech perception, reading and writing, phonological working memory, and the integration of sensory information for spatial awareness and object manipulation. Structural and functional imaging studies associate BA40 with the dorsal language stream, sensorimotor integration for complex hand and mouth actions, and aspects of social cognition, making it a key association area within the parietal lobe. There is no direct Wikipedia article for “Brodmann area 40” as a standalone entry; a closely related structure is the supramarginal gyrus: Supramarginal gyrus.
The right parietal sub-gyral gray matter of Brodmann area 40 (supramarginal/inferior parietal region) has been implicated in several genetic and GWAS-based associations, largely through imaging-genetics and disorder-focused studies rather than region-specific single-gene findings. Variants in genes affecting synaptic plasticity and neurodevelopment—such as BDNF (e.g., Val66Met), CACNA1C, and DISC1—have been associated with altered parietal cortical thickness or activation patterns, especially in tasks involving language, working memory, attention, and social cognition, functions supported by BA40. Large-scale neuroimaging GWAS (e.g., ENIGMA and UK Biobank studies) have identified polygenic influences on parietal lobe volume and cortical thickness, implicating loci in pathways related to neuronal differentiation, axon guidance, and glutamatergic signaling; while not always isolating BA40 specifically, these studies show that common variants collectively modulate structure and connectivity in inferior parietal regions. BA40 involvement has been reported in genetic risk for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, and autism spectrum disorder, where risk alleles in genes such as CNTNAP2, NRXN1, and those within the MHC region have been linked to disrupted connectivity and activation in temporoparietal and inferior parietal networks. In neurodegenerative and cognitive GWAS, polygenic scores for Alzheimer’s disease, educational attainment, and general cognitive ability predict differences in parietal cortical morphology and functional engagement during language and numerical tasks, with BA40 participating in these networks. Overall, genetic associations for this specific Talairach-defined region are best characterized as part of broader inferior parietal and multimodal association cortex networks, where complex polygenic architectures influence susceptibility to psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders, individual differences in cognition and language, and variability in parietal lobe structure and function.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 1000
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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