Paracentral lobule

{{short description|Region of the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain}}

{{Infobox brain

| Name = Paracentral lobule

| Latin = lobulus paracentralis

| Image = Sobo 1909 624 - Paracentral lobule.png

| Caption = Medial surface of left cerebral hemisphere. (Paracentral lobule is shown in red.)

| Image2 = Cerebral Gyri - Medial Surface1.png

| Caption2 = Medial view of a halved human brain (Paracentral lobule labeled at top center, in blue.)

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In neuroanatomy, the paracentral lobule is on the medial surface of the cerebral hemisphere and is the continuation of the precentral and postcentral gyri. The paracentral lobule controls motor and sensory innervations of the contralateral lower extremity. It is also responsible for control of blushing,{{cite journal |last=Nikolić |first=Milica |last2=di Plinio |first2=Simone |last3=Sauter |first3=Disa |last4=Keysers |first4=Christian |last5=Gazzola |first5=Valeria |date=2024-07-17 |title=The blushing brain: neural substrates of cheek temperature increase in response to self-observation |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |publisher=The Royal Society |volume=291 |issue=2027 |page= |doi=10.1098/rspb.2024.0958 |issn=1471-2954 |doi-access=free|hdl=20.500.11755/c2d7e660-5628-4c77-aa7b-340039915a70 |hdl-access=free }} defecation and urination.

It includes portions of the frontal and parietal lobes:{{cite book |title=Neuroscience in medicine |publisher=Humana Press |location=Totowa, NJ |year=2003 |pages=348 |isbn=1-58829-016-6 }}

• The anterior portion of the paracentral lobule is part of the frontal lobe and contains a little portion of Brodmann's area 6 (SMA): this is because the paracentral sulcus (branch of the cingulate sulcus) does not correspond to the precentral sulcus on the medial plane.
• The posterior portion is considered part of the parietal lobe and deals with somatosensory of the distal limbs.

While the boundary between the lobes, the central sulcus, is easy to locate on the lateral surface of the cerebral hemispheres, this boundary is often discerned in a cytoarchetectonic manner in cases where the central sulcus is not visible on the medial surface.