At the back of each cerebral hemisphere, it is separated from the parietal and temporal lobes by two imaginary line from the top of the parieto-occipital sulcus to the pre-occipital notch (an indentation in the base of each cerebral hemisphere) on its lateral surface, and on the medial surface by the parieto-occipital sulcus. The surface area of the lobe accounts for about 12% of the total surface area of the neocortex. It contains the primary visual cortex in the gyri on both sides of the calcimine sulcus, and has also exclusive visual function, being part of the dorsal visual stream together with the posterior parietal cortex. Electrical stimulation of the occipital lobe results in a variety of visual sensations, and if damaged leads to complete or partial blindness (viz., visual agnosia), depending on the location and severity of the damage. While crucial for vision, it is still not clear if activity in the occipital cortex gives rise to subjective visual experiences or whether it is part of a larger neural circuit that mediates visual awareness.
See Agnosia, Calcarine sulcus, Cerebral cortex (or pallium), Dorsal visual pathway (or stream), Frontal eye fields (FEF), Gyrus, Metabolism, Occipital-temporal pathway, Parietal cortex, Parietal lobe, Primary visual cortex (V1), Temporal lobe, Two-visual system hypothesis, Sulcus, TE cortex