Parietal-temporal-occipital

The parietal-temporal-occipital (PTO) association area is located in the cerebral cortex of the human brain. As its name implies, the PTO includes portions of the parietal, temporal and occipital lobes.

This association area--one of three in the cortex--is responsible for the assembly of auditory, visual, and somatosensory system information. Meaning is assigned to stimuli in the PTO, which outputs to numerous other areas of the brain, notably the limbic and prefrontal association areas, which are involved in memory.

In the left hemisphere, the PTO is mainly responsible for language recognition (reading, listening, and braille), while in the right it identifies the spatial characteristics of objects and is involved in spatial awareness.