What is the temporal lobe?
Q: What is the temporal lobe?
A: The temporal lobe is a region of the cerebral cortex located under the Sylvian fissure on both cerebral hemispheres of the mammalian brain.
Q: What does the temporal lobe do?
A: The temporal lobe is involved in auditory perception and processing of semantics (meaning) in both speech and vision. It also contains the hippocampus which plays a key role in forming long-term memory.
Q: How does auditory information reach the cerebral cortex?
A: Auditory signals from the cochlea first reach an area in the Sylvian fissure, known as primary auditory cortex, which is involved in hearing. Other areas of the temporal lobes are then involved with high-level auditory processing.
Q: What functions are associated with left temporal lobe?
A: The left temporal lobe is specialized for speech comprehension, naming, verbal memory and other language functions. It also performs high-level visual processing of faces and scenes related to object perception and recognition.
Q: What role does Wernicke's area play?
A: Wernicke's area spans between temporal and parietal lobes and plays a key role (with Broca's area, which is located in frontal lobe) in understanding language functions such as speech comprehension, naming, verbal memory etc.
Q: What function does hippocampus serve?
A: The hippocampus deep inside medial temporal lobes serves an essential role for memory function – particularly transfer from short to long term memory as well as control of spatial memory and behaviour.
