As part of the central nervous system the parietal lobe is important for integrating different forms of information, especially those concerning the outside sensory world and various sensory modalities. Consequently lesions to this area have a profound and wide array of effects on behavior. As with much of the central nervous system the studies of the symptoms of people with gross lesions in the parietal lobe are especially important because they provide insight into lobe functioning. Since most animals do not rely as heavily on the parietal lobes and monkeys who have the most similarities in lobe structure and function are difficult to derive data from relating to spatial or language cognition, much of what we know about the parietal lobe is from or influenced by research concerning lesional affects. As the consequences of lobe lesions are influenced by the location of the lesion within the lobe, symptoms of parietal lobe lesions will be described in reference to these primary areas of anterior and posterior lobules with reference to hemispheres when significant.

Drawing deficit is a common symptom among lesion patients however there is a wide range of disturbances that depend on where their lesion is located and what other symptoms they suffer. For example disturbance to the left hemisphere patient may result in drawings being barely recognizable while right hemisphere patients may omit details from the left side and rotate the object on the page. While study has shown that drawing is a process in which the parietal lobe plays a part in, once again we must look towards other areas of the brain as also contributing and continue examining available data.

With the knowledge that the most devastating impairments of spatial cognition are found in patients with lesions to the posterior parietal cortex researchers have been able to conclude that this region is essentially responsible for spatial awareness and visomotor guidance of egocentric movements in space. Damage received to the parietal lobe is not always symmetrical, in fact damage to the right and left lobes typically results in very different symptoms. Right parietal lobe lesions can result in contralateral neglect (hemispatial neglect), or the neglecting of the opposite side of the body and or space. While hemispatial neglect is a syndrome that can occur with lesions on either side of the brain, it is typically lesions in the right side of the brain that results in the most severe expression of symptoms. Individuals ignore bodily information completely on the side which is contralateral to the lesion. The most visible result of this symptom is the impairment in many personal care skills such as dressing and washing. In dramatic cases individuals even deny that the limbs on this side of their body belong to them. Neglect is the general term for attention deficit in which a person ignores sensory information that is normally considered important. We know from this symptom that the parietal region is important in contributing to spatial aspects of attentional functioning in humans and providing a spatial map of the world. In addition from studying these patients it has been revealed that there are multiple spatial frameworks that we use to function including a map of external and personal space based on the midline of the trunk and one in regard to the position of the head. This neglect also carries to the visual field, as individuals will disregard information from the left side of the visual field. People with damage in the right hemisphere have severe deficits in the processing of complex spatial information in both the real world and their imaginations. Damage to parietal regions inhibits one’s ability to localize points in space, use a map, manipulate objects in the min

Some topics in this essay:
, parietal lobe, lobe lesions, parietal region, symptoms parietal lobe, parietal lobe lesions, spatial cognition, symptoms parietal, visual guidance, parietal regions, understanding parietal lobe, parietal lobe plays, structure function, central nervous system, right-left confusion, damage parietal,