Your Brain, Region by Region

Sources and simplifications

Every reference cited on this site, and every place a figure idealizes the real system.

References

  1. Spielman, R. M. et al. (2020). Psychology 2e, §3.4 The Brain and Spinal Cord. OpenStax, Rice University. textbook (The lobes)
  2. Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland (2024). Lobes of the brain. institutional (The lobes)
  3. Betts, J. G. et al. (2022). Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §13.2 The Central Nervous System. OpenStax, Rice University. textbook (The lobes)
  4. Betts, J. G. et al. (2022). Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §14.3 Motor Responses. OpenStax, Rice University. textbook (The lobes)
  5. Penfield, W. and Boldrey, E. (1937). Somatic motor and sensory representation in the cerebral cortex of man as studied by electrical stimulation. Brain 60(4):389–443. doi:10.1093/brain/60.4.389. paper (The lobes)
  6. Betts, J. G. et al. (2022). Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §14.2 Central Processing. OpenStax, Rice University. textbook (The lobes)
  7. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), NIH (2025). Aphasia. institutional (The lobes)
  8. Hubel, D. H. (1981). Evolution of ideas on the primary visual cortex, 1955–1978: a biased historical account (Nobel lecture). The Nobel Foundation. lecture (The lobes)
  9. Hubel, D. H. and Wiesel, T. N. (1959). Receptive fields of single neurones in the cat's striate cortex. Journal of Physiology 148(3):574–591. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1959.sp006308. paper (The lobes)
  10. Hubel, D. H. and Wiesel, T. N. (1962). Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortex. Journal of Physiology 160(1):106–154. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1962.sp006837. paper (The lobes)
  11. Nobel Prize Outreach (1981). The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1981 (Sperry; Hubel and Wiesel). institutional (The lobes)
  12. Suga, N. (1990). Biosonar and neural computation in bats. Scientific American 262(6):60–68. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0690-60. article (The lobes)
  13. Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland (2024). The hindbrain. institutional (Cerebellum and brainstem)
  14. Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland (2024). The midbrain. institutional (Cerebellum and brainstem)
  15. Azevedo, F. A. C., Carvalho, L. R. B., Grinberg, L. T., et al., Herculano-Houzel, S. (2009). Equal numbers of neuronal and nonneuronal cells make the human brain an isometrically scaled-up primate brain. Journal of Comparative Neurology 513(5):532–541. doi:10.1002/cne.21974. paper (Cerebellum and brainstem)
  16. Martin, T. A., Keating, J. G., Goodkin, H. P., Bastian, A. J. and Thach, W. T. (1996). Throwing while looking through prisms. II. Specificity and storage of multiple gaze-throw calibrations. Brain 119(4):1199–1211. doi:10.1093/brain/119.4.1199. paper (Cerebellum and brainstem)
  17. Martin, T. A., Keating, J. G., Goodkin, H. P., Bastian, A. J. and Thach, W. T. (1996). Throwing while looking through prisms. I. Focal olivocerebellar lesions impair adaptation. Brain 119(4):1183–1198. doi:10.1093/brain/119.4.1183. paper (Cerebellum and brainstem)
  18. Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland (2024). Corpus callosum. institutional (Corpus callosum)
  19. Aboitiz, F., Scheibel, A. B., Fisher, R. S. and Zaidel, E. (1992). Fiber composition of the human corpus callosum. Brain Research 598(1–2):143–153. doi:10.1016/0006-8993(92)90178-C. paper (Corpus callosum)
  20. Gazzaniga, M. S. (2005). Forty-five years of split-brain research and still going strong. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6(8):653–659. doi:10.1038/nrn1723. paper (Corpus callosum)
  21. Gazzaniga, M. S., Bogen, J. E. and Sperry, R. W. (1962). Some functional effects of sectioning the cerebral commissures in man. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 48(10):1765–1769. doi:10.1073/pnas.48.10.1765. paper (Corpus callosum)
  22. Sperry, R. W. (1968). Hemisphere deconnection and unity in conscious awareness. American Psychologist 23(10):723–733. doi:10.1037/h0026839. paper (Corpus callosum)
  23. Gazzaniga, M. S. (1998). The split brain revisited. Scientific American 279(1):50–55. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0798-50. article (Corpus callosum)
  24. Nielsen, J. A., Zielinski, B. A., Ferguson, M. A., Lainhart, J. E. and Anderson, J. S. (2013). An evaluation of the left-brain vs. right-brain hypothesis with resting state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging. PLoS ONE 8(8):e71275. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0071275. paper (Corpus callosum)
  25. Harlow, J. M. (1848). Passage of an iron rod through the head. Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 39(20):389–393. doi:10.1056/NEJM184812130392001. paper (Phineas Gage)
  26. Damasio, H., Grabowski, T., Frank, R., Galaburda, A. M. and Damasio, A. R. (1994). The return of Phineas Gage: clues about the brain from the skull of a famous patient. Science 264(5162):1102–1105. doi:10.1126/science.8178168. paper (Phineas Gage)
  27. Ratiu, P., Talos, I.-F., Haker, S., Lieberman, D. and Everett, P. (2004). The tale of Phineas Gage, digitally remastered. Journal of Neurotrauma 21(5):637–643. doi:10.1089/089771504774129964. paper (Phineas Gage)
  28. Macmillan, M. (2000). An Odd Kind of Fame: Stories of Phineas Gage. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ISBN 0262133636. book (Phineas Gage)
  29. Van Horn, J. D., Irimia, A., Torgerson, C. M., Chambers, M. C., Kikinis, R. and Toga, A. W. (2012). Mapping connectivity damage in the case of Phineas Gage. PLoS ONE 7(5):e37454. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0037454. paper (Phineas Gage)
  30. Harlow, J. M. (1868). Recovery from the passage of an iron bar through the head. Publications of the Massachusetts Medical Society 2(3):327–347. paper (Phineas Gage)
  31. Macmillan, M. (2024). The Phineas Gage Information Page (his story; psychosocial adaptation). University of Akron. institutional (Phineas Gage)
  32. Macmillan, M. and Lena, M. L. (2010). Rehabilitating Phineas Gage. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation 20(5):641–658. doi:10.1080/09602011003760527. paper (Phineas Gage)
  33. Wilgus, J. and Wilgus, B. (2009). Face to face with Phineas Gage. Journal of the History of the Neurosciences 18(3):340–345. doi:10.1080/09647040903018402. paper (Phineas Gage)
  34. Catani, M. (2017). A little man of some importance. Brain 140(11):3055–3061. doi:10.1093/brain/awx270. paper (Homunculus)
  35. Penfield, W. and Rasmussen, T. (1950). The Cerebral Cortex of Man: A Clinical Study of Localization of Function. Macmillan, New York (1950; the linked copy is the 1957 printing). book (Homunculus)
  36. Gordon, E. M., Chauvin, R. J., Van, A. N., et al., Dosenbach, N. U. F. (2023). A somato-cognitive action network alternates with effector regions in motor cortex. Nature 617:351–359. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-05964-2. paper (Homunculus)
  37. Kell, C. A., von Kriegstein, K., Rösler, A., Kleinschmidt, A. and Laufs, H. (2005). The sensory cortical representation of the human penis: revisiting somatotopy in the male homunculus. Journal of Neuroscience 25(25):5984–5987. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0712-05.2005. paper (Homunculus)

Simplifications