A region of the dominant cerebral hemisphere essential for understanding spoken and written language.
Structure
The area lies in the temporal lobe near the auditory cortex, and is connected by a major white matter tract called the arcuate fasciculus to Broca area in the frontal lobe.
Function
Wernicke area extracts meaning from incoming language input. Damage produces fluent aphasia, in which speech sounds grammatically normal but lacks coherent content and the patient cannot understand language.
Lateralization
The area is dominant on the left side in most right-handed people and in many left-handed people as well.
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Wernicke Area starts with W and ends with A. Browse other body parts along the same letter.
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