Postcentral gyrus

Postcentral gyrus
Postcentral gyrus
	Postcentral gyrus of the human brain
	Brodmann areas 3, 1, and 2 of human brain. Brodmann area 3 is in red, area 1 in green, and area 2 in yellow.
Details
System	Somatosensory system
Location	Parietal lobe
Artery	Middle cerebral artery
Function	Primary somatosensory cortex
Identifiers
Latin	gyrus postcentralis
NeuroNames	105
NeuroLex ID	birnlex_1070
TA98	A14.1.09.128
TA2	5469
FMA	61896
	Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy [edit on Wikidata]

In neuroanatomy, the postcentral gyrus is a prominent gyrus in the lateral parietal lobe of the human brain. It is the location of the primary somatosensory cortex, the main sensory receptive area for the sense of touch. Like other sensory areas, there is a map of sensory space in this location, called the sensory homunculus.

The primary somatosensory cortex was initially defined from surface stimulation studies of Wilder Penfield, and parallel surface potential studies of Bard, Woolsey, and Marshall. Although initially defined to be roughly the same as Brodmann areas 3, 1, and 2, more recent work by Kaas has suggested that for homogeny with other sensory fields only area 3 should be referred to as "primary somatosensory cortex", as it receives the bulk of the thalamocortical projections from the sensory input fields^{[citation needed]}.