fMRI can identify smaller, difficult to detect, language centers. In the following image series, a language center was detected on the bottom of a patient's left hemisphere, underneath the temporal lobe. Not all individuals have this basal temporal language area. Notice that the images are "pixelly." They are not smooth and they need to be co-registered with anatomical images.
Six fMRI images reveal the specific location where a patient has a third language area. Located in the fusiform gyrus in the inferior temporal lobe, this language area is shown by the brighter signals indicating higher neuronal activity beneath the middle of temporal lobe while the patient produced the names of objects, such as "ship" or "boat" or "cow." This language area is unusual and points to individual brain differences.