The Temporal Lobe

Hearing, language comprehension, recognising faces and objects, and — on its inner surface — memory and emotion: the many jobs of the temporal lobe.

The temporal lobes lie beneath the lateral fissure on each side of the brain, roughly behind your temples and ears.

Hearing

The primary auditory cortex sits on the upper surface of the temporal lobe, partly hidden inside the lateral fissure (in a region called Heschl's gyrus). It is organised tonotopically — neighbouring neurons respond to neighbouring pitches, like a piano keyboard — and surrounding areas process more complex sounds such as speech and music.

Understanding language

In the left hemisphere of most people, Wernicke's area at the back of the superior temporal gyrus is important for understanding spoken language. The middle and front of the temporal lobe store and retrieve the meanings of words — in semantic dementia, degeneration of the front of the temporal lobes gradually erases word meanings and knowledge of objects.

Recognising what things are

The underside of the temporal lobe is the end of the visual "what" pathway (the ventral stream). The fusiform face area responds strongly to faces; damage here can cause prosopagnosia, an inability to recognise faces, even familiar ones. Nearby regions respond to places, bodies and written words.

Memory and emotion

On the inner (medial) surface lie the hippocampus and surrounding cortex, essential for forming new memories of facts and events, and the amygdala, which tags experiences with emotional significance. The medial temporal lobe is also the most common origin of focal epilepsy in adults: temporal-lobe seizures can begin with a rising feeling in the stomach, déjà vu, strange smells or fear.