The superior temporal sulcus (STS) is the long groove on the outer side of each temporal lobe that separates the superior temporal gyrus above from the middle temporal gyrus below. It runs under the lateral sulcus, and its back end turns up into the parietal lobe, where the angular gyrus arches over it. [1][2]
The 3D brain needs JavaScript. The text below still says where the superior temporal sulcus is and what it does.
Seen from the left: the superior temporal gyrus is lit in blue, the middle temporal gyrus in orange, on both hemispheres. The groove runs where blue meets orange; the front (coronal) slice button cuts across it. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom, tap any part to name it; .
A groove has no shape of its own; lit: the parts on either side of it. Lit: above, the superior temporal gyrus in blue; below, the middle temporal gyrus in orange. The superior temporal sulcus separates the superior temporal gyrus above from the middle temporal gyrus below, on the outer side of the temporal lobe, under the lateral sulcus. [1][3][4]
Its back end turns up into the parietal lobe: the angular gyrus arches over the end of the groove, and behind it runs on into the middle temporal gyrus. [2]
It is not always present or visible as one clear groove; the superior temporal gyrus is described as bounded below by it “not always present or visible”. [3]
What it does
Imaging studies find it responds strongly to five kinds of input: other people’s beliefs (theory of mind), bodies in motion (biological motion), faces, voices and language. [1]
Its middle and back parts are more active when people hear human voices than other sounds; the left side leans towards speech sounds (phonological processing), the right towards voice and the melody of speech (prosody). [1]
The back part of the groove responds to facial expressions, to where someone else is looking (joint attention) and to lip reading, and links what is heard with what is seen. [1]
It is active when deaf and hearing native signers watch sign language, more so in those who learned it earlier. [1]
Inside it
It is not symmetric: in humans it is longer in the left hemisphere but deeper in the right, an asymmetry that has been found only in the human brain. [1]
Other names
Often shortened to STS. A sulcus is a groove of the cerebrum and a gyrus the ridge between two grooves. [1][5]
Size
The model has no shape for the superior temporal sulcus, so the groove itself is not measured here. Measured from the model instead: on the left hemisphere, the stretch where the superior temporal gyrus and the middle temporal gyrus come within 3 mm of each other fits in a box about 106 mm front to back, 34 mm top to bottom and 36 mm side to side (the box that stretch fits in, not the groove’s length along its bends or its depth). [6]
Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. The 3D model is the adult male BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); real brains vary in size and shape, so its measurements describe one model, not anyone’s brain.