The Planum Temporale

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Abstract
Ever since Geschwind and Levitsky1 published their article on asymmetry of the planum temporale of the human brain, there has been growing interest in the potential usefulness of this structure for the understanding of language lateralization in the normal brain and for the study of acquired and developmental disorders of language.2-7 From the beginning, however, there has been debate and confusion as to exactly what the planum temporale is. Should it include or exclude a second Heschl's gyrus, if present? What about the posterior branching of the sylvian fissures? Which one of the planes created by such branching constitutes the continuation of the planum temporale? The debate continues to this date and the problem has become more poignant with the realization that it is possible to get an estimate of the shape and size of the planum temporale from the reconstruction of images obtained by magnetic resonance imaging