Occipital lobe

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The occipital lobe is one of the four lobes of the brain. It sits posterior to the temporal and parietal lobes, underlying the occipital bone and overlying the tentorium cerebelli.

Gross anatomy

The boundaries of the occipital lobe have been arbitrarily defined, giving it a triangular shape ¹. It is separated from the parietal and temporal lobes on the medial surface by the parieto-occipital sulcus/fissure and on the lateral side by the parieto-temporal lateral line, an imaginary line extending from the preoccipital notch to the parieto-occipital sulcus. The tentorium cerebelli forms its inferior border and the occipital bone its posterior margin.

Functional areas

The occipital lobe is concerned with visual processing and is composed of three Brodmann areas:

primary visual cortex (Brodmann area 17)
secondary visual (association) cortex (Brodmann areas 18 & 19)

Sulci and gyri

medial surface (from superior to inferior)
- parieto-occipital sulcus
- cuneus (gyrus)
- inferior sagittal sulcus
- calcarine sulcus
  - site of the primary visual cortex
- lingual gyrus
- collateral sulcus
  - posterior segment, extending from temporal lobe ²
- fusiform gyrus
lateral surface
- lunate sulcus
  - highly variable structure and does not correspond to a functional region ³
- transverse occipital sulcus
  - may play a role in higher-order scene perception ⁴
- lateral occipital sulcus
  - divides lateral aspect of occipital lobe into:
    - superior occipital gyrus
    - inferior occipital gyrus
    - middle occipital gyrus
      - not consistently present, found in 30% of specimens in one study ⁵

Relations

anterior: parietal and temporal lobes
posterior: occipital bone
superior: parietal lobe and parietal
inferior: tentorium cerebelli
medial: transverse sinuses, torcula

Blood supply

branches of the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) ⁶
- parieto-occipital artery
- calcarine artery
- posterior temporal artery
- common temporal artery/ temporo-occipital artery/ lateral occipital artery
- lingual gyrus artery
  - not found in all individuals

~~-<li> <a href="/articles/primary-visual-cortex">primary visual cortex</a> (Brodmann area 17)</li>~~
~~-<li> <a href="/articles/secondary-visual-cortex">secondary visual (association) cortex</a> (Brodmann areas 18 & 19)</li>~~
+<li>
+<a title="primary visual cortex" href="/articles/calcarine-visual-cortex">primary visual cortex</a> (Brodmann area 17)</li>
+<li>
+<a href="/articles/secondary-visual-cortex">secondary visual (association) cortex</a> (Brodmann areas 18 & 19)</li>

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