language areas

In NEUROLINGUISTICS, the areas of the brain which seem to be most closely implicated in speaking, listening, reading, writing and signing, mainly located at or around the Sylvian and Rolandic fissures; also called the language centres. For example, an area in the lower back part of the frontal lobe is primarily involved in the encoding of SPEECH (Broca’s area); an area in the upper back part of the temporal lobe, extending upwards into the parietal lobe, is important in the comprehension of speech (Wernicke’s area). Other areas are involved in speech perception, visual perception and the motor control of speaking, writing and signing.