The Parietal Lobe is near the back and top of the head.

Functions:

• Location for visual attention.
• Location for touch perception.
• Goal directed voluntary movements.
• Manipulation of objects.
• Integration of different senses that allows for understanding a single concept.

Observed Problems:

• Inability to attend to more than one object at a time.
• Inability to name an object (Anomia).
• Inability to locate the words for writing (Agraphia).
• Problems with reading (Alexia).
• Difficulty with drawing objects.
• Difficulty in distinguishing left from right.
• Difficulty with doing mathematics (Dyscalculia).
• Lack of awareness of certain body parts and/or surrounding space (Apraxia) that leads to difficulties in self-care.
• Inability to focus visual attention.
• Difficulties with eye and hand coordination.

Parietal lobe is primarily responsible for receiving and processing sensory input such as touch, pressure, heat, cold and pain from the surface of the body.  It also perceive awareness of body position.  The somatosensory cortex, located posterior to the central sulcus, is the primary target for touch sensations and other skin/muscle information.  Each region within the somatosensory cortex receives sensory input from a specific area of the body.  The somatosensory cortex on each side of the brain for the most part receives sensory input from the opposite side of the body, because most of the ascending pathways carrying sensory information up the spinal cord cross over to the opposite side before eventually terminating in the cortex.  Damage to the somatosensory cortex in the left hemisphere produces sensory deficits on the right side of the body, whereas sensory losses on the left side are associated with damage to the right half of the cortex.  Simple awareness of touch, pressure or temperature is detected by the thalamus, a lower level of the brain, but the somatosensory cortex goes beyond pure recognition of sensations to fuller sensory perception.  The somatosensory cortex localizes the source of sensory input and perceives the level of intensity of the stimulus.  It is also capable of spatial discrimination, so it can discern shapes of objects being held and can distinguish subtle differences in similar objects that come into contact with the skin.  The somatosensory cortex, in turn, projects this sensory input via white matter fibers to adjacent higher sensory areas for even further elaboration, analysis, and integration of sensory information.  These higher areas are important in the perception of complex patterns of somatosensory stimulation.