Wernicke’s Area

Wernicke’s area, also called Wernicke’s speech area, in the brain is involved in written-and-spoken language comprehension. It’s one of two cerebral cortex parts linked to speech (the other is Broca’s area, primarily involved in language production). First discovered in 1874 by German neurologist Carl Wernicke, this brain area is located in the superior temporal gyrus in the dominant cerebral hemisphere — the left hemisphere in 95% of right-handed individuals and 70% of left-handed individuals. Damage caused to Wernicke’s area results in aphasia — the person can fluently connect words, but phrases lack meaning. Emerging research shows its development role in language acquisition/processing in childhood. It contributes, along with maturing neural pathways, to the progressive complexity of language comprehension and production abilities.