Wernicke's+Area

Location
Broadly considered, Wernicke's area encompasses a large expanse of tissue that extends from the posterior superior and middle temporal lobe to the IPL and up a over the parietal operculum, around the sylvian fissure, extending just beyond the supramarginal gyrus.

Functions
This vast expanse of cortex is actually made up of a mosaic of speech area, each concerned with different aspects of language, including comprehesion, word retrieval, naming, verbal memory, and even expressive speech.

the inferior parietal lobe and Wernicke's area interact so as to comprehend and express the sounds and words of language--all of which is then transmitted via the arcuate fasiculus to Broca's area.

Brodmanns areas
22, part of 42

Connections From
-Contralateral auditory association area via the corpus callosum and anterior commissure -Somesthetic association cortices -Visual Association Cortices

These interlinking pathways include the inferior and middle temporal lobes which are also multi-modal areas concerned with language, somesthesis, and complex visual functioning, and the immediately adjacent inferior parietal lobule which becomes active when viewing words, when performing syllable judgements, and when reading.

Connections To
-Frontal convexity and orbital region -Frontal eye fields -Cingulate gyrus

Electrical Stimulation
Significant language impairments

Lesions/Destruction
-Receptive Aphasia