Cortical area · one in each half of the brain
Superior temporal gyrus
Also called STG, Brodmann area 22
Where sound turns into words: home of Wernicke's area.
This is the top ridge of the temporal lobe and the brain's main hearing region. The primary auditory cortex sits on its upper surface, and the areas around it make sense of sounds: speech, music, voices and noises. Its back part, on the left side in most people, contains Wernicke's area, which is key for understanding speech.
Where it is
The top ridge of the temporal lobe, running from front to back just below the lateral sulcus, roughly above and in front of your ear.
What it does
Processing sounds
It receives sound from the primary auditory cortex and works out what the sound is and where it came from.
Understanding speech
Wernicke's area, at the back, turns streams of speech sounds into words you understand.
Music
It helps you follow melody and pitch. The right side tends to play a bigger role in music.
Recognizing voices
It helps you tell who is talking and pick out one voice in a noisy room.
Think of it as a translator's booth: raw sound waves come in, and words with meaning come out.
Works with
- Primary auditory cortexThe primary auditory cortex, tucked on its upper surface, hands it the first processed version of every sound.
- Arcuate fasciculusThis fiber cable carries language from Wernicke's area forward to Broca's area.
- Broca's areaWernicke's area understands words, and Broca's area helps you produce them. Together they let you hold a conversation.
- Supramarginal gyrusIts parietal neighbor helps hold speech sounds in mind while you work out their meaning.
- Superior temporal sulcusThe groove below it helps recognize voices and match lip movements to speech.
When it goes wrong
Wernicke's aphasia
After damage to Wernicke's area, people speak fluently but their words often make little sense, and they have trouble understanding others. Often they do not realize anything is wrong.
Word deafness
In rare cases of damage on both sides, people can still hear sounds like a doorbell but cannot understand spoken words.
Hearing voices
In schizophrenia, hearing voices that are not there has been linked to unusual activity in this area.
For learning only, not medical advice. If you have a health concern, talk to a doctor.
Surprising facts
- Carl Wernicke was only in his mid-twenties when he published his famous description of this language area in 1874.
- The flat area just behind the primary auditory cortex, called the planum temporale, is larger on the left side in about two out of three people, possibly linked to language.
Where the name comes from
"Superior" means "upper", so this is the upper ridge of the temporal lobe. Wernicke's area is named after German doctor Carl Wernicke, who described it in 1874.
Learn it in a lesson
- LanguageHearing, understanding, speaking, reading. A short guided lesson in 3D.
Quick quiz
3 questions. Your answers are saved and come back in your daily review.
Which of these is a job of the superior temporal gyrus?
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Processing sounds. It receives sound from the primary auditory cortex and works out what the sound is and where it came from.
Processing sounds. It receives sound from the primary auditory cortex and works out what the sound is and where it came from.
The superior temporal gyrus is part of which larger structure?
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Temporal lobe. It belongs to the temporal lobe.
Temporal lobe. It belongs to the temporal lobe.
Which part fits this description? "Like a translator's booth: raw sound waves come in, and words with meaning come out."
Show the answer
Superior temporal gyrus. It is the superior temporal gyrus. Where sound turns into words: home of Wernicke's area.
Superior temporal gyrus. It is the superior temporal gyrus. Where sound turns into words: home of Wernicke's area.
These parts now come back in your daily review, just before you would forget them.
Practice it and its neighbors in 3DSources
- Superior temporal gyrus, Radiopaedia
- Wernicke Aphasia, StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf
- How Does Acoustic Information Enter the Brain?, OpenStax, Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience
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Explore the superior temporal gyrus in 3D
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