Brain centers in charge of voice recognition

In everday life, we automatically and effortlessly decode speech into language independently of who speaks. Similarly, we recognize a speaker's voice independently of what she or he says.(1)

My first call of this holiday weekend was a real jaw-dropper. The youngish man was most put out; he'd been assured that his prescription was called in and, on arriving at the pharmacy, found that they had no record of it. In language worthy of a drunken sailor, he anonymously expressed his deep unhappiness, and concluded that my staff and I were copulating pieces of excrement but in different words.

Now I certainly appreciate his aggravation--been there (at the pharmacy as a customer) done that (felt my blood pressure rising that the pharmacy staff had no knowledge of any script) myself. As often as not, it's an oversight or delay at the pharmacy, but I do know (as do you my patients) that we also have system failures at the office. That said, this tirade was inappropriate done anywhere but in the privacy of one's own brain or car, and I would like to know the identity of the caller so we can discuss whether or not he should continue as our patient if he even cares to do so.

So now we're on the topic du post: voice recognition. I remember a much more pleasant call nearly two decades ago when my front desk assistant announced I had a personal call on line 6. I didn't recognize the name she gave me (remember--we do admit to system failures) but I instantly knew the voice of my freshman college best buddy whom I'd lost track of for 17 years. Now scientists have identified the bit of gray matter that lights up with delight or dismay at the sound of a familiar voice.

Using functional MRI scanning, researchers from the Department of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Maastricht located an area of the auditory cortex that hums with activity as test subjects decipher the message and the messenger of spoken stimuli. In order to establish the identity of my anonymous caller, I need to find a staff member whose right anterior superior temporal sulcus (this STS is a brain bit located roughly behind and slightly above the right ear) along with the nearby Heschl's gyrus roars with recognition (and righteous indignation) when the message is replayed.

And Mr. No-Impulse-Control, get this, Pat at the front desk has a highly developed STS, and we will smoke you out. And know that a plainly worded message, even one expressing anger appropriately over lost time and effort, would've resulted in a prompt call by me to your pharmacy!
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Formisano et al. "Who" is saying "What"? Brain-based decoding of human voice and speech. Science. 7 November 2008, Vol 322, pps. 970-973.