Middle temporal gyrus

{{short description|One of three gyri of the temporal lobe of the brain}}

{{More citations needed|date=July 2014}}

{{Infobox brain

| Name = Middle temporal gyrus

| Latin = gyrus temporalis medius

| Image = Gray726 middle temporal gyrus.png

| Caption = Lateral surface of left cerebral hemisphere, viewed from the side. (Middle temporal gyrus shown in orange.)

| Image2 = TempCaptsLateral.png

| Caption2 = Right temporal lobe (shown in green). Middle temporal gyrus is visible at the middle of the green area.

| IsPartOf = Temporal lobe

| Components =

| Artery = Middle cerebral and
posterior cerebral

| Vein =

}}

Middle temporal gyrus is a gyrus in the brain on the temporal lobe. It is located between the superior temporal gyrus and inferior temporal gyrus. It corresponds largely to Brodmann area 21.

The middle temporal gyrus is bounded by:

• the superior temporal sulcus above;
• the inferior temporal sulcus below;
• an imaginary line drawn from the preoccipital notch to the lateral sulcus posteriorly.

It has been connected with processes as different as contemplating distance, recognition of known faces, audio-visual emotional recognition,{{Cite journal|last1=Pourtois|first1=G|last2=Degelder|first2=B|last3=Bol|first3=A|last4=Crommelinck|first4=M|date=2005|title=Perception of Facial Expressions and Voices and of their Combination in the Human Brain|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0010945208701771|journal=Cortex|language=en|volume=41|issue=1|pages=49–59|doi=10.1016/S0010-9452(08)70177-1|pmid=15633706|s2cid=3765984}} and accessing word meaning while reading.{{Cite journal | last1 = Acheson | first1 = DJ. | last2 = Hagoort | first2 = P. | title = Stimulating the brain's language network: syntactic ambiguity resolution after TMS to the inferior frontal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus. | journal = J Cogn Neurosci | volume = 25 | issue = 10 | pages = 1664–77 |date=Oct 2013 | doi = 10.1162/jocn_a_00430 | pmid = 23767923 | hdl = 2066/116682 | s2cid = 3513464 | url = https://repository.ubn.ru.nl/bitstream/2066/116682/1/116682-OA.pdf | hdl-access = free }}

Some studies indicate that lesions of the posterior region of the middle temporal gyrus, in the left cerebral hemisphere, may result in alexia and agraphia for kanji characters (characters of Chinese origin used in Japanese writing).{{Cite journal | last1 = Sakurai | first1 = Y. | last2 = Mimura | first2 = I. | last3 = Mannen | first3 = T. | title = Agraphia for kanji resulting from a left posterior middle temporal gyrus lesion. | journal = Behav Neurol | volume = 19 | issue = 3 | pages = 93–106 | year = 2008 | doi = 10.1155/2008/393912| pmid = 18641429 | pmc = 5452449 | doi-access = free }} The left middle temporal gyrus is also activated during poem composition.{{Cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Siyuan |last2=Erkkinen |first2=Michael G. |last3=Healey |first3=Meghan L. |last4=Xu |first4=Yisheng |last5=Swett |first5=Katherine E. |last6=Chow |first6=Ho Ming |last7=Braun |first7=Allen R. |date=2015-05-26 |title=Brain activity and connectivity during poetry composition: Toward a multidimensional model of the creative process |journal=Human Brain Mapping |volume=36 |issue=9 |pages=3351–3372 |doi=10.1002/hbm.22849 |issn=1065-9471 |pmc=4581594 |pmid=26015271}}