Which parietal region stores past sensory experiences to relate new sensory input to old?

• A. Primary somatosensory cortex
• B. Somatosensory association area
• C. Auditory association area
• D. Wernicke's area

Answer: (B)

The somatosensory association area in the parietal lobe is what ties current touch and proprioceptive input to what you’ve felt before. It takes the raw sensory signals from the body and compares them with stored memories of past sensations, enabling you to recognize objects by touch, judge texture, shape, and spatial relationships, and make sense of new sensory input in light of prior experience. This integration isn’t done by the primary somatosensory cortex, which simply receives and maps the basic sensory signals, nor by the auditory association area or Wernicke’s area, which handle sound interpretation and language, respectively.