Which cortical area is typically involved in Wernicke's aphasia?

• A. Left posterior superior temporal gyrus
• B. Left inferior frontal gyrus
• C. Right posterior superior temporal gyrus
• D. Left fusiform gyrus

Answer: (A)

Language comprehension hinges on the left posterior superior temporal gyrus. When this region in the dominant hemisphere is damaged, as in Wernicke's aphasia, semantic processing and auditory understanding are disrupted, leading to fluent but often meaningless speech with poor comprehension and impaired repetition. That makes the left posterior superior temporal gyrus the key site associated with this syndrome. The left inferior frontal gyrus is more about speech production, so damage there tends to cause non-fluent, effortful speech (Broca's aphasia) rather than fluent but empty speech. The right posterior superior temporal gyrus is on the non-dominant side and does not typically produce the classic Wernicke's language deficit. The left fusiform gyrus is tied to visual word form processing, not the auditory-semantic comprehension impaired in Wernicke's aphasia.