Study topic · about 4 minutes

Lobes of the brain

Each half of the brain's wrinkled outer layer, the cerebral cortex, has four main lobes: the frontal lobe for planning, movement and speech, the parietal lobe for touch and space, the temporal lobe for hearing, language and memory, and the occipital lobe for vision. A fifth area, the insula, is folded away inside.

Key points

There are four lobes on each side: frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital.
Many textbooks add the insula, hidden inside a deep groove, and the limbic lobe around the middle of the brain.
Each lobe has main jobs, but real skills use several lobes working together.
Each hemisphere mostly controls and feels the opposite side of the body.

What are the lobes of the brain?

The cerebrum is the big, wrinkled top part of the brain. It is split into two hemispheres, left and right, and each hemisphere is divided into lobes, named after the skull bones that cover them. The borders between the lobes follow deep grooves in the surface, called sulci: the central sulcus separates the frontal and parietal lobes, and the lateral sulcus runs above the temporal lobe.

Lobe	Where it is	Main jobs
Frontal	Behind the forehead	Planning, decisions, self-control, movement, speech
Parietal	Under the crown of the head	Touch, body position, attention to space
Temporal	On each side, by the ears	Hearing, understanding language, memory, faces
Occipital	At the back of the head	Vision
Insula	Hidden inside the lateral sulcus	Sensing the inside of the body, taste, disgust

Frontal lobe: planning, movement and speech

The frontal lobe sits behind your forehead and is the largest lobe. Its front part, the prefrontal cortex, plans, decides, focuses attention and holds back impulses, together called the brain's executive functions. Along its back edge, the primary motor cortex sends the commands that move your muscles. On the left side, Broca's area helps turn thoughts into spoken words.

Damage to the frontal lobe can change personality and judgment. The most famous example is Phineas Gage, a railroad worker whose frontal lobe was pierced by an iron rod in 1848: he survived, but friends said he was "no longer Gage".

Parietal lobe: touch, the body and space

The parietal lobe sits behind the frontal lobe, under the crown of your head. Its front strip, the primary somatosensory cortex, receives touch, pain, temperature and body position from the opposite side of the body. The rest of the lobe combines the senses into a map of where your body is and where things are around you, which you need to reach, point and find your way.

Damage to the right parietal lobe can cause neglect: the person ignores the left side of space, and may even eat from only one half of the plate.

Temporal lobe: hearing, language and memory

The temporal lobe sits low on each side, near your ears. The primary auditory cortex receives sound. On the left side, the back of the superior temporal gyrus, known as Wernicke's area, helps you understand language. The inner part of the lobe holds the hippocampus, which forms new memories, and its underside includes the fusiform gyrus, which helps recognize faces.

Occipital lobe: vision

The occipital lobe is at the very back of the head, as far from the eyes as it can be. The primary visual cortex receives signals from the eyes and picks out edges, lines and movement; the areas around it add color, shape and depth. Damage here can cause blindness in part of the visual field, even when the eyes themselves are healthy.

The insula and the limbic lobe

Pull the frontal and temporal lobes apart and you find the insula, hidden deep inside the lateral sulcus. It senses the inside of the body, like your heartbeat, hunger and pain, and it is involved in taste and disgust.

The insula lit up inside a see-through 3D brain — The insula (light blue), seen through the see-through lobes that fold over it.

Around the middle of the brain, where the two hemispheres face each other, the cingulate cortex and the areas near it are sometimes called the limbic lobe. They link emotion, motivation and memory.

Do the lobes work alone?

No. The lobes are a way to name regions, not separate machines. Reading this sentence uses the occipital lobe to see the letters, the temporal lobe to understand the words, the parietal lobe to guide your eyes along the line and the frontal lobe to stay focused. Brain scans show that most tasks switch on areas in several lobes at once.

Each hemisphere mostly controls and feels the opposite side of the body. That is why a stroke in the left frontal lobe can weaken the right arm.

Quick quiz

5 questions. Your answers are saved and come back in your daily review.

Which lobe mainly processes vision?
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Occipital lobe. The occipital lobe, at the back of the head, holds the primary visual cortex.
Which lobe holds the primary motor cortex, which moves your muscles?
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Frontal lobe. The primary motor cortex runs along the back edge of the frontal lobe.
Where does the brain first receive touch from the skin?
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Parietal lobe. The primary somatosensory cortex is the front strip of the parietal lobe.
Which lobe contains the primary auditory cortex?
Show the answer
Temporal lobe. Sound arrives in the primary auditory cortex, in the temporal lobe.
Which hidden area senses your heartbeat and hunger, and plays a part in taste and disgust?
Show the answer
Insula. The insula is folded away inside the lateral sulcus.

In these study guides

MCATForebrain, midbrain and hindbrain
AP Psychology1.4 The brain
Intro psychologyThe brain and spinal cord (section 3.4)
Anatomy and physiologyThe brain (section 13.2)
NursingBrain regions in a neuro assessment
Medical schoolCortex, language and lateralization
A-level PsychologyLocalisation of function
GCSE BiologyThe brain (4.5.2.2, Biology only)

Take it further in 3D

The big pictureCerebrum, cerebellum and brainstem. A short guided lesson in the 3D app.
The hidden cortexInsula, cingulate and the inner surfaces. A short guided lesson in the 3D app.
Moving and feelingThe motor and sensory strips. A short guided lesson in the 3D app.
LanguageHearing, understanding, speaking, reading. A short guided lesson in the 3D app.
SeeingFrom the eye to the back of the brain. A short guided lesson in the 3D app.

Sources

Lobes of the brain, Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland
Anatomy and Physiology 2e, 13.2 The Central Nervous System, OpenStax

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