3 Association cortices | General characteristics

1. Parietal-temporal-occipital: multimodality sensory, language
2. Prefrontal: cognitive behavior, motor planning
3. Limbic: emotion, memory effects on motor planning

How does information reach an association area of cerebral cortex?

Association fibers

• Primary sensory areas (SI, VI, AI): receive sensory information from periphery
• Higher sensory areas: integrate and higher level processing of sensory information
• Association areas:

1. Integrate different modality sensory information.
2. Link sensory to motor areas, higher mental functions

Commissural connections

• Commisural fibers in corpus callosum and anterior commissure
• Density of commissural connections varies for different regions (e.g. density is higher for distal limb vs. back)