Parietal operculum

The parietal operculum, forming the superior bank of the sylvian fissure, as studied in the cat, contains the secondary somatosensory representation, 'S-II', and a second somatotopic representation (parietal ventral, or PV). Anatomically, primate S-II receives inputs from area 3 and area 1, and projects to PV and area 7. PV has projections to area 5 and premotor areas.

Function
Single cell recording in primates show neurons with larger receptive fields than primary somatosensory cortex, responding to bilateral tactile stimuli, and showing attentional modulation.

In humans, PO is activated during somatosensory stimulation, texture discrimination tasks, and in motor tasks involving sensory feedback. It is also involved in tactile learning and memory, and may also perform co-ordinate transformations from the somatotopic to other spatial frames.