Occipital gyri
The occipital gyri are three gyri in parallel, along the lateral portion of the occipital lobe, also referred to as a composite structure in the brain. The gyri are the superior occipital gyrus, the middle occipital gyrus, and the inferior occipital gyrus, and these are also known as the occipital face area. The superior and inferior occipital sulci separates the three occipital gyri.
The intraoccipital sulcus, also known as the superior occipital sulcus, stems from the intraparietal sulcus and continues until the sulcus reaches the transverse occipital sulcus, separating the superior occipital gyrus from the middle occipital gyrus. The transverse occipital sulcus comes down along the lateral occipital surface or the inferior occipital sulcus.
Structural anatomy
The border between the occipital lobe and the parietal and temporal lobes is characterized by different gyri: the superior occipital gyrus, middle occipital gyrus, inferior occipital gyrus, and descending occipital gyrus.Function
The occipital complex is primarily responsible for object recognition, including the functional properties and our perception of said objects. The middle occipital gyrus was observed in a study of the early blind, which showed that it was activated more during spatial than nonspatial tactile and auditory tasks. Early blind people have an occipital cortex that incorporates more senses than people with standard vision, but the MOG still keeps its functional role in processing space around a person.The lingual gyrus has been studied and found to be included in processing overall shapes, rather than the individual components that make up a shape. This shows that the lingual gyrus is active during visual processing.
The inferior occipital gyrus has been found to be related to the visual function of processing faces. The IOG is connected to the amygdala via white matter connectivity. This allows the IOG to form a network for facial recognition with the amygdala.