Rinsho Shinkeigaku (Clinical Neurology)

The 51st Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Neurology

Emotion and Brodmann's areas: special reference on area 12

Mitsuru Kawamura, M.D.

Department of Neurology, Showa University School of Medicine

Brodmann's brain maps, assembled in 1909, are still in use, but understanding of their animal-human homology is uncertain. Furthermore, in 1909, Brodmann did not identify human Area 12 (BA12); a location now important to understanding of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and emotional function. We found Brodmann did identify human BA12 in later maps (1910 and 1914), not in the 1909 monograph. Because of its current link with FTLD, BA 12's translation from animal (1909) to human (1910 and 1914) is not only an historical puzzle. It impacts how Brodmann's areas, based on comparative animal-human cyto-architecture, are widely used in current research as functional loci in human brain. If Brodmann's maps are of current value, then an accurate rather than a generic Brodmann number is in order.
Full Text of this Article in Japanese PDF (113K)

(CLINICA NEUROL, 50: 1010|1011, 2010)
key words: Brodmann's area, Frontotemporal lobar degeneration, Orbitofrontal cortex, Emotion

(Received: 22-May-10)