Brain Teaser: Ready to stimulate those neurons in your temporal lobes?

Lan­guage is pri­mar­i­ly processed in the tem­po­ral lobes–on the sides of your brain, next to you tem­ples, most­ly on the left side–and dif­fer­ent areas in the tem­po­ral lobes deal with dif­fer­ent aspects of lan­guage. For exam­ple, the Wer­nicke area sup­ports your abil­i­ty to under­stand words, where­as the Bro­ca area allows you to pro­duce lan­guage or artic­u­late words.

Let’s try a fun brain teas­er to help you exer­cise a good range of those neu­rons in your tem­po­ral lobes…

Read each def­i­n­i­tion and try to find the cor­re­spond­ing word.

(Answers are pro­vid­ed below; please don’t check them until you have tried!)

_________________ = A plant hav­ing a per­ma­nent­ly woody main stem, usu­al­ly grow­ing to a high height, and devel­op­ing branch­es at some dis­tance from the ground.

_________________ = A large, usu­al­ly tawny-yel­low cat, native to Africa and south­ern Asia, hav­ing a tuft­ed tail.

_________________ = The nutri­tious, orange to yel­low root of a plant of the pars­ley family.

_________________ = An arti­cle of fur­ni­ture con­sist­ing of a flat top sup­port­ed on one or more legs.

_________________ = An insti­tu­tion where instruc­tion is given.

_________________ = A mov­ing cage for car­ry­ing pas­sen­gers from one lev­el to another.

_________________ = A device for trans­mis­sion of sound or speech to a dis­tant point

_________________ = a body of water of con­sid­er­able size, sur­round­ed by land.

_________________ = A domes­tic fowl bred for its flesh, eggs, and feathers.

_________________ = A shal­low, usu­al­ly cir­cu­lar dish from which food is eaten.

_________________ = A pre­cip­i­ta­tion in the form of ice crystals.

_________________ = Any cir­cu­lat­ing medi­um of exchange

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ANSWERS

Tree
Lion
Carrot
Table
School
Elevator
Telephone
Lake
Chicken
Plate
Snow
Money

Pas­cale Mich­e­lon, PhD is a sci­en­tist, edu­ca­tor, and con­tribut­ing author to The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness: How to Opti­mize Brain Health and Per­for­mance at Any Age.

–> For more fun cog­ni­tive stim­u­la­tion, vis­it these Top 25 Brain Teasers for Teens and Adults, and explore What are Cog­ni­tive Abil­i­ties and Skills, and How to Boost Them?