The bilateral Right Cerebrum.Temporal Lobe.Middle Temporal Gyrus.Gray Matter.Brodmann area 22 corresponds to a cortical region in the posterior superior and middle portions of the temporal lobe, primarily involved in higher-order auditory processing, language comprehension, and aspects of semantic integration. In the dominant (usually left) hemisphere, Brodmann area 22 encompasses much of Wernicke’s area, critical for decoding spoken language and mapping acoustic signals to meaning, while the corresponding right-hemisphere homologue contributes to prosody, nonverbal auditory cues, and broader contextual aspects of communication. Structurally, this region is composed of layered neocortical gray matter containing pyramidal neurons and interneurons organized into canonical cortical columns, and it is heavily interconnected with primary and secondary auditory cortices, inferior parietal and frontal language areas, and association cortices that support multimodal integration. Because there is no specific Wikipedia article for “Right Middle Temporal Gyrus Brodmann area 22,” a closely related entry is provided: Brodmann area 22.
The Right Cerebrum Temporal Lobe Middle Temporal Gyrus Gray Matter Brodmann area 22 (BA22), a core component of the lateral temporal cortex involved in auditory, language, and semantic processing, has been repeatedly implicated in genetic studies of neuropsychiatric and cognitive traits. GWAS and imaging-genetics work link variation in genes regulating synaptic function and neurodevelopment (e.g., CNTNAP2, NRGN, GRIN2A, FOXP2, and common schizophrenia risk loci near CACNA1C and MIR137) to structural and functional differences in BA22 and adjacent superior/middle temporal regions, particularly in language-related and social cognition tasks. BA22 volume and cortical thickness have shown heritability in twin and large-scale MRI studies, with polygenic scores for schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and major depressive disorder associated with altered temporal lobe morphometry and connectivity. Temporal language cortex, including BA22, is frequently disrupted in primary progressive aphasia and semantic dementia, conditions enriched for pathogenic variants in genes such as GRN and C9orf72, and in rare monogenic aphasia or speech-disorder syndromes involving FOXP2 and related pathways. Additionally, common genetic variation influencing educational attainment, general cognitive ability, and reading/language performance has been associated with structural and activation differences in BA22 and neighboring temporal gyri, underscoring this region’s role as a genetically modulated hub for language and higher cognition.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 460
Hemisphere: bilateral
Atlas: Talairach labels 1mm
Full Quality Version: Download MP4
Full Quality Version: Download MP4
Wali Sidiqyar*, Gaurav Rudravaram*, Elyssa M. McMaster, Trent M. Schwartz, Adam M. Saunders, Kurt G. Schilling, Bennett A. Landman "Introducing SPINS: A Shared Public Visualization Library of Neuroanatomical Structures." Medical Imaging with Deep Learning- short paper
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