Wer·nick·e's area

(vĕr′nĭ-kēz, -kəz)

An area in the posterior left hemisphere of the brain cortex at the sylvian fissure that is important for language comprehension and speech.

[After Karl Wernicke (1848-1905), German neurologist.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

Wernicke's area - the auditory word center; located in the posterior part of the superior temporal convolution in most people

Wernicke's center

nerve center, nerve centre, center, centre - a cluster of nerve cells governing a specific bodily process; "in most people the speech center is in the left hemisphere"

language area, language zone - a large cortical area (in the left hemisphere in most people) containing all the centers associated with language

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References in periodicals archive

Correlation was computed in specific regions of interest (ROI), involved in the auditory and Wernicke's area (BA22, BA41, and BA42), as well as in brain areas related to multimodal integration, such as the superior temporal sulcus (STS), the middle intraparietal sulcus (IT), and the insula.

Anatomical and Functional MRI Changes after One Year of Auditory Rehabilitation with Hearing Aids

P1 with a tumor in Wernicke's area appeared to have intact cognition, apart from a temporary clinical memory deficit at 6 weeks postoperatively.

Differential Effects of Awake Glioma Surgery in "Critical" Language Areas on Cognition: 4 Case Studies

Aphasia centered in Wernicke's area can result in meaningless sentences, but these patients are able to recall lyrics of songs.

Singing: some do it for passion, all do it for evolution

* In a typical brain, Wernicke's Area acts as a giant warehouse for speech sounds and their links to meaningful vocabulary.

Inside the brain of a struggling reader: why a one-size-fits-all approach does not work for every child

Consequently, two different systems can be distinguished in Wernicke's area: dorsal and ventral.

A proposed neurological interpretation of language evolution

A quantitative dendritic analysis of Wernicke's area in humans.

Bases neurobiologicas de la rehabilitacion

Generally, verbal fluency paradigms require expressive language and secondarily, language comprehension and therefore activations are noted in Broca's areas and Wernicke's area in the dominant hemisphere, in addition to pre-motor cortex, posterior fusiform gyrus, middle temporal gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Functional MRI language mapping in pre-surgical epilepsy patients: Findings from a series of patients in the Epilepsy Unit at Mediclinic Constantiaberg

For example, Wernicke's area (in the upper part of the left temporal lobe, close to the primary auditory area) is the zone of phonological recognition.

Borges and the brain: visible connections with neurocognitive linguistics

Then the brain was envisioned as a hard-wired entity with distinct areas named and claimed like colonial territories--Broca's Area, Primary Motor Cortex, Wernicke's Area and so on.

Review essay: making our brains

It has been thought since the time of both Broca and Wernicke that there exists a high decree of localization of function with an area anterior to the Sylvian fissure of the temporal lobes being responsible for expressive language and Wernicke's area responsible for comprehension.

Children's language production: how cognitive neuroscience & industrial engineering can inform public education policy and practice