Lobe · one in each half of the brain

Temporal lobe

Hearing, language, faces and memory: the brain's sound and story center.

Open in 3D

The temporal lobes sit on each side of your brain, behind your temples and just above your ears. They handle hearing, understanding speech, and recognizing faces and objects. Their inner parts help turn experiences into lasting memories. Deep inside lie the hippocampus and amygdala, key players in memory and emotion.

Where it is

On the lower side of each half of the brain, behind the temples and above the ears. A deep groove, the lateral sulcus, separates it from the frontal and parietal lobes above.

What it does

Think of it as the brain's library and recording studio: it listens, names what you see, and files away the story of your life.

Inside the temporal lobe

• Superior temporal gyrusWhere sound turns into words: home of Wernicke's area.
• Primary auditory cortexThe first cortical stop for sound, laid out by pitch like piano keys.
• Superior temporal sulcusYour social radar: it reads gazes, voices and body language.
• Middle temporal gyrusA storehouse of word meanings, and near its back, a hub for seeing motion.
• Inferior temporal gyrusNames what you see: the end of the brain's "what is that?" pathway.
• Fusiform gyrusYour face and word detector, on the underside of the brain.
• Temporal poleThe front tip of the temporal lobe, where facts about people meet feelings.
• Medial temporal cortexThe memory gateway on the inner temporal lobe, wrapped around the hippocampus.

Works with

• HippocampusThis seahorse-shaped structure, curled inside the temporal lobe, is its partner for forming new memories.
• AmygdalaThe amygdala sits at its front tip, inside, and tags sights and sounds with emotion.
• Medial geniculate nucleusThis hearing relay in the thalamus delivers sound signals to the temporal lobe.
• Occipital lobeVisual signals flow forward from the occipital lobe into the temporal lobe to be recognized.
• Arcuate fasciculusThis fiber cable links its language areas with the speech areas of the frontal lobe.
• Uncinate fasciculusThis hook-shaped cable ties its front tip, including the amygdala, to the underside of the frontal lobe.

When it goes wrong

For learning only, not medical advice. If you have a health concern, talk to a doctor.

Surprising facts

• In 1953, a man known as H.M. had large parts of both inner temporal lobes removed to stop severe seizures. Afterward he could no longer form new long-term memories, which taught scientists where memories are made.
• When Wilder Penfield stimulated the temporal lobes of awake patients, some suddenly heard familiar sounds or saw flashes of scenes from their past.

Where the name comes from

From the Latin "tempora", the temples of the head, a word thought to have first meant the thin stretch of skin at the side of the forehead.

Learn it in a lesson

• The big pictureCerebrum, cerebellum and brainstem. A short guided lesson in 3D.

Sources

1. Neuroanatomy, Temporal Lobe, StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf
2. Memory is Classified Based on Time Course and Type of Information Stored, OpenStax, Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience
3. Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf

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