Temporal lobe

Information about Temporal lobe

Brain:
Lobes of the human brain (the temporal lobe is shown in green)
Section of brain showing upper surface of temporal lobe.
Latinlobus temporalis
subject #189 823
Part ofBrain
ArteryMiddle cerebral and
Posterior cerebral
NeuroNameshier-107
MeSH Temporal+Lobe
The temporal lobes are part of the cerebrum. They lie at the sides of the brain, beneath the lateral or Sylvian fissure. Seen in profile, the human brain looks something like a boxing glove. The temporal lobes are where the thumbs would be.

The temporal lobe is involved in auditory processing and is home to the primary auditory cortex. It is also heavily involved in semantics both in speech and vision. The temporal lobe contains the hippocampus and is therefore involved in memory formation as well.

Function

The superior temporal gyrus includes an area (within the Sylvian fissure) where auditory signals from the cochlea (relayed via several subcortical nuclei) first reach the cerebral cortex. This part of the cortex (primary auditory cortex) is involved in hearing. Adjacent areas in the superior, posterior and lateral parts of the temporal lobes are involved in high-level auditory processing. In humans this includes speech, for which the left temporal lobe in particular seems to be specialized. Wernicke's area, which spans the region between temporal and parietal lobes, plays a key role (in tandem with Broca's area, which is in the frontal lobe). The functions of the left temporal lobe are not limited to low-level perception but extend to comprehension, naming, verbal memory and other language functions. Sound processing is controlled by the temporal lobes- in the Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area.

The underside (ventral) part of the temporal cortices appear to be involved in high-level visual processing of complex stimuli such as faces (fusiform gyrus) and scenes (parahippocampal gyrus). Anterior parts of this ventral stream for visual processing are involved in object perception and recognition.

The medial temporal lobes (near the Sagittal plane that divides left and right cerebral hemispheres) are thought to be involved in episodic/declarative memory. Deep inside the medial temporal lobes, the hippocampi seem to be particularly important for memory function - particularly transference from short to long term memory and control of spatial memory and behavior.

Additional images


Lobes

Base of brain.

Coronal section through anterior cornua of lateral ventricles.

Drawing to illustrate the relations of the brain to the skull.

The dorsal stream (green) and ventral stream (purple) in the temporal lobe are shown.


See Also

External links

Latin}}} 
Official status
Official language of: Vatican City
Used for official purposes, but not spoken in everyday speech
Regulated by: Opus Fundatum Latinitas
Roman Catholic Church
Language codes
ISO 639-1: la
ISO 639-2: lat
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In animals, the brain or encephalon (Greek for "in the skull"), is the control center of the central nervous system, responsible for behavior. The brain is located in the head, protected by the skull and close to the primary sensory apparatus of vision, hearing,
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The middle cerebral artery (MCA) is one of the three major paired arteries that supplies blood to the brain. The MCA arises from the internal carotid and continues into the lateral sulcus where it then branches and projects to many parts of the lateral cerebral cortex.
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NeuroNames is a system of nomenclature for the human and/or macaque brain.

It is maintained by the University of Washington and is a part of a tool called "BrainInfo". BrainInfo helps one identify structures in the brain.
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Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a huge controlled vocabulary (or metadata system) for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences. Created and updated by the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), it is used by the MEDLINE/PubMed
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The telencephalon (IPA: /tɛlɛnˈsɛfəlɑn/) is the name for the forebrain, a large region within the brain to which many functions are attributed.
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In animals, the brain or encephalon (Greek for "in the skull"), is the control center of the central nervous system, responsible for behavior. The brain is located in the head, protected by the skull and close to the primary sensory apparatus of vision, hearing,
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The lateral sulcus (also called Sylvian fissure or lateral fissure) is one of the most prominent structures of the human brain. It divides the frontal lobe and parietal lobe above from the temporal lobe below.
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The human brain controls the central nervous system (CNS), by way of the cranial nerves and spinal cord, the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and regulates virtually all human activity.
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Boxing gloves are gloves fighters wear on their hands to cushion the impact during boxing. They are also used for protection from injury such as fractures and/or contusions.
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Auditory means of or relating to the process of hearing:
  • Auditory system, the neurological structures and pathways of sound perception.
  • Sound, the physical signal perceived by the auditory system.

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The primary auditory cortex is the region of the brain that is responsible for processing of auditory (sound) information.

Function of the Primary Auditory Cortex


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The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter.
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Speech communication refers to the processes associated with the production and perception of sounds used in spoken language. A number of academic disciplines study speech and speech sounds, including acoustics, psychology, speech pathology, linguistics, and computer science.
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In psychology, visual perception is the ability to interpret visible light information reaching the eyes which is then made available for planning and action. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight or vision.
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The hippocampus is a part of the forebrain, located in the medial temporal lobe. It forms a part of the limbic system and plays a part in memory and spatial navigation. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain.
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In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and subsequently retrieve information. Traditional studies of memory began in the realms of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing the memory.
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The superior temporal gyrus is one of three (sometimes two) gyri in the temporal lobe of the human brain.

A gyrus (plural gyri) is a bump or ridge on the surface of the brain.
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The cochlea is the auditory portion of the inner ear. Its core component is the Organ of Corti, the sensory organ of hearing, which is distributed along the partition separating fluid chambers in the coiled tapered tube of the cochlea.
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cerebral cortex is a structure within the vertebrate brain with distinct structural and functional properties. In non-living, preserved brains, the outermost layers of the cerebrum has a grey color, hence the name "grey matter".
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The primary auditory cortex is the region of the brain that is responsible for processing of auditory (sound) information.

Function of the Primary Auditory Cortex


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Wernicke's area is a part of the human brain that forms part of the cortex, on the left posterior section of the superior temporal gyrus, encircling the auditory cortex, on the Sylvian fissure (part of the brain where the temporal lobe and parietal lobe meet).
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Broca's area is a section of the human brain that is involved in language processing, speech production, and comprehension. Broca's area is named after the 19th century physician Paul Broca.
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Face perception is the process by which the brain and mind understand and interpret the face, particularly the human face.

The face is an important site for the identification of others and conveys significant social information.
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The fusiform gyrus is part of the temporal lobe. It is also known as the (discontinuous) occipitotemporal gyrus.

Function

There is still some dispute over the functionalities of this area, but there's relative consensus on these four:

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The parahippocampal gyrus (or hippocampal gyrus) is a grey matter cortical region of the brain that surrounds the hippocampus. This region plays an important role in memory encoding and retrieval.
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ventral stream and the dorsal stream. The ventral stream is associated with object recognition and form representation. It has strong connections to the medial temporal lobe (which stores long-term memories), the limbic system (which controls emotions), and the dorsal stream (which
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Visual processing is the sequence of steps that information takes as it flows from visual sensors to cognitive processing. The sensors may be zoological eyes or they may be cameras or sensor arrays that sense various portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
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cerebral hemisphere (hemispherium cerebrale) is defined as one of the two regions of the brain that are delineated by the body's median plane. The brain can thus be described as being divided into left and right cerebral hemispheres.
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Episodic memory refers to the memory of events, times, places, associated emotions, and other conception-based knowledge in relation to an experience. Semantic and episodic memory together make up the category of declarative memory, which is one of the two major divisions in memory.
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