Only Wikipedia (as far as I can tell) states that the brain has 6 lobes. Everyone else says 4. Which statement is correct?
Please supply a link to the article.
First, I think the discussion is about the cerebral cortex, not the entire brain (the cerebellum is considered separately). The “four lobes” would be: frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital. If you are going to mention six, the previous four plus the insular and limbic lobes would be up for discussion.
Cite Link to article WE requested
The book that they reference as a source is available online:
Searching for “lobe”, I see:
Anterior Lobe of Cerebellum
Posterior Lobe of Cerebellum
Flocculonodular Lobe
Frontal Lobe
Parietal Lobe
Occipital Lobe
Temporal Lobe
On several of those Wikipedia pages is a link to this one:
It seems to include this as an additional lobe, despite not having the word in the name:
My take is that the Frontal, Parietal, Occipital and Temporal are the traditional and popularly known four or the “major four”. Neurology specialists have added the latter two (the Limbic and the Insular Cortex) as they’ve continued to learn about brain function but this hasn’t spread much beyond their own literature (given that the Mayo Clinic still uses the major four). And no one seems to consider the cerebellum to be a part of the brain or else they’d have to go with 9 lobes.
Or, said simply:
4 is good enough for the yokels, 6 if you want to be able to out-trivia your friends, 9 if you want to get into an argument with a neuroscientist about what constitutes a “brain”.
Amusingly, the term “cerebellum” is strongly connected to the brain in the public consciousness (for instance, with a highly-intelligent character being punningly named “Sara Bellum”), even though it has almost no involvement in what would usually be called “thinking”.
Distinguished experts i.e. The Ramones felt that the cerebellum was an important determinant of intellectual capacity.
Now I guess I’ll have to tell 'em
That I got no cerebellum
Gonna get my Ph.D
I’m a teenage lobotomy
The last decade or so has included much research demonstrating that the cerebellum is involved in much more than propioception and motor planning, inclusive of cognition, emotional regulation, and even social skills. In fact it is highly probably quite involved in what would be called “thinking.”
Life can be good without a cerebellum.
Really interesting!!
The ability of other portions of the brain to take on the functions of other portions in some cases is fascinating.
Unfortunately his one case is less than typical. More than half of those with isolated cerebellar vermis and/or hemisphere malformations have moderate to severe mental retardation. Other portions less so.
And there is that guy with complete absence and only fairly subtle deficits in fine tuning and coordinating thoughts together. Huh.
Is an imbalanced absence harder to have compensation for than a complete and therefore balanced one maybe? Like the case with vision development (hence why pediatric ophthalmologists patch the stronger eye to prevent amblyopia)?
In any case the cerebellum is an important part of the brain even though most don’t count its lobes, only cortical ones. It gets no respect!
Indeed. I hung out last night with a friend who has mesial temporal sclerosis, a brain pathology that causes him to have numerous seizures each day, They aren’t grand mal seizures, he just sort of zones out for a minute, but that means he cannot drive.
He has had two brain surgeries where they’ve gone in and mucked about with his temporal lobe. This hasn’t helped a bit. However, the side effects are interesting. He cannot remember certain words/concepts. He looked at my pint glass of beer and asked what it was. I told him “beer”, but he said of course it’s beer, but what is keeping it from being all over the table? I said a glass, and he thought about it for a bit. Then he talked about how it is a glass, but that’s what it is made of also, which makes it confusing.
He will be having a third brain surgery (medication has not helped at all).
Your friend illustrates the truth of something many doctors will say: you really don’t want to be the interesting patient. Not usually anyway.
That’s very disabling.
Yep, just to get to the point of a diagnosis he went through three PCPs, finally a referral to a neurologist, who then referred him to a second neurologist, then finally a surgeon. The second neurologist arrived at the diagnosis. Three years of various diagnostic tests and drugs followed by two surgeries. He is worse today than he was when he first noticed something was off.
I should know better than to be surprised at anything about the brain.