Cuneus
Encyclopedia
Cuneus is also the architectural
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 term applied to the wedge-shaped divisions of the Roman theatre separated by the scalae or stairways; see Vitruvius
Vitruvius
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC. He is best known as the author of the multi-volume work De Architectura ....

 v. 4. This shape also occurred in medieval architecture.


The cuneus is a portion of the human brain in the occipital lobe
Occipital lobe
The occipital lobe is the visual processing center of the mammalian brain containing most of the anatomical region of the visual cortex. The primary visual cortex is Brodmann area 17, commonly called V1...

.

The cuneus (Brodmann area 17) receives visual information from the contralateral superior retina representing the inferior visual field. It is most known for its involvement in basic visual processing. Pyramidal cells in the cuneus (striate cortex) project to extrastriate cortices (BA 18,19). The mid-level visual processing that occurs in the extrastriate projection fields of the cuneus are modulated by extraretinal effects, like attention, working memory, and reward expectation.

In addition to its traditional role as a site for basic visual processing, gray matter volume in the cuneus is associated with better inhibitory control in bipolar depression patients. Pathologic gamblers have higher activity in the dorsal visual processing stream including the cuneus relative to controls.

Gallery

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK