The superior parietal lobe includes BA5 and B7, and is separated from the inferior parietal lobe (BA40 and BA39) by the intraparietal sulcus. The right secondary sensorimotor cortex is clearly involved in visuospatial processing, including the perception of the personal space and spatial imagery. Clinical observation demonstrates that the damage in the left superior parietal lobe is associated with ideomotor apraxia (loss of the ability to produce purposeful, skilled movements as the result of brain pathology not caused by weakness, paralysis, lack of coordination, or sensory loss). It is understandable that the secondary sensorimotor cortex participates in processing tool-use gestures, motor imagery, bimanual manipulation, and similar praxic abilities. BA5/7 may also participate in a circuit underlying imitation of motor learning. It is well established that astereognosis (or tactile agnosia: loss of the ability to recognize objects by handling them) is found in cases of damage in the association sensorimotor cortex. Functional studies confirm that the superior parietal lobe participates in tactile localization whereas the inferior parietal lobe may be involved in tactile recognition. The superior parietal lobe also seems to participate in other processes, such as rhyme detection and semantic categorization tasks; and, interestingly, temporal context recognition.
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