Brodmann area 44, or BA44, is part of the frontal cortex in the human brain. Situated just anterior to premotor cortex (BA6) and on the lateral surface, inferior to BA9.
This area is also known as pars opercularis (of the inferior frontal gyrus), and it refers to a subdivision of the cytoarchitecturally defined frontal region of cerebral cortex. In the human it corresponds approximately to the opercular part of inferior frontal gyrus (H). Thus, it is bounded caudally by the inferior precentral sulcus (H) and rostrally by the anterior ascending limb of lateral sulcus (H). It surrounds the diagonal sulcus (H). In the depth of the lateral sulcus it borders on the insula. Cytoarchitectonically it is bounded caudally and dorsally by the agranular frontal area 6, dorsally by the granular frontal area 9 and rostrally by the triangular area 45 (Brodmann-1909).
Functions
Together with left-hemisphere BA 45, the left hemisphere BA 44 comprises Broca's area a region involved in semantic tasks. Some data suggest that BA44 is more involved in phonological and syntactic processing. Some recent findings also suggest the implication of this region in music perception. Recent neuroimaging studies show BA44 involvement in selective response suppression in go/no- go tasks and is therefore believed to play an important role in the suppression of response tendencies. Neuroimaging studies also demonstrate that area 44 is related to hand movements.