Superior Temporal Sulcus—It's My Area: Or Is It?
Open accessAbstract
The superior temporal sulcus (STS) is the chameleon of the human brain. Several research areas claim the STS as the host brain region for their particular behavior of interest. Some see it as one of the core structures for theory of mind. For others, it is the main region for audiovisual integration. It plays an important role in biological motion perception, but is also claimed to be essential for speech processing and processing of faces. We review the foci of activations in the STS from multiple functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, focusing on theory of mind, audiovisual integration, motion processing, speech processing, and face processing. The results indicate a differentiation of the STS region in an anterior portion, mainly involved in speech processing, and a posterior portion recruited by cognitive demands of all these different research areas. The latter finding argues against a strict functional subdivision of the STS. In line with anatomical evidence from tracer studies, we propose that the function of the STS varies depending on the nature of network coactivations with different regions in the frontal cortex and medial-temporal lobe. This view is more in keeping with the notion that the same brain region can support different cognitive operations depending on task-dependent network connections, emphasizing the role of network connectivity analysis in neuroimaging.
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REM-locked activation is found in multisensory cortical areas identified in waking studies, including superior temporal gyrus and right retrosplenial cortex.
“REM-locked activation was also found in multisensory cortical areas indentified in waking studies (Calvert and Thesen, 2004). These include superior temporal gyrus – a key region for audiovisual integration (Hein and Knight, 2008) – and the right retrosplenial cortex.”
From Virtual reality and consciousness inference in dreaming (2014) · cites this paper as Hein and Knight, 2008
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- Authors
- Hein, G., & Knight, R. T.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Publisher
- MIT Press
- Published
- 2008-12-01
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 2125-2136
- ISSN
- 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
- 1530-8898
- OpenAlex
- W2003735335
- Cited by
- 486
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 35 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 35 · 2013: 39 · 2012: 35
- FWCI
- 4.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.zora.uzh.ch
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Funders
- U.S. Public Health Service (P0 40813)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS-21135)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Keywords
- superior temporal sulcus, theory of mind, audiovisual integration, biological motion perception, speech processing, face processing, functional specialization, frontal cortex, medial temporal lobe, neuroimaging
- MeSH terms
- Auditory Perception, Facial Expression, Humans, Functional Laterality, Speech, Temporal Lobe, Visual Perception, Comprehension
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