Neurosurgeons have been directly involved with brain mapping efforts for well over a century. Direct access to the functioning human brain during surgery for intrinsic brain tumors, epilepsy, and functional neurosurgical procedures both requires individual functional brain mapping and presents an opportunity to precisely map human brain function. Several papers in this issue of Neurosurgical Focus extend our current understanding of cerebral organization with detailed examination of specific regions. Others introduce new technical nuances for intraoperative brain mapping. A third group of papers focuses on noninvasive brain mapping techniques that have emerged and been refined over the last several years.