chapter 15 Flashcards
Temporal lobe includes the
neocortex, limbic cortex, and olfactory cortex
Subcortical structures of the temporal lobe include the
amygdala and hippocampus
Temporal lobe is connected to
other regions throughout the brain
Rough subdivisions of the lateral surface include
auditory areas and areas associated with the ventral visual stream
Olfactory (pyriform) cortex is found on the
medial surface
Temporal–parietal junction is involved in
attention, memory, and decision making in a social context
Deep sulci increase the
surface area of the temporal lobe
Insula, deep within the Sylvian (lateral) fissure, includes the
gustatory cortex
Superior temporal sulcus contains
multimodal association areas
Sensory systems project to the
temporal lobe
Output from the temporal lobe goes to the
frontal and parietal lobes as well as the limbic system and basal ganglia
Hierarchical visual and auditory pathways used for
object recognition
Dorsal auditory pathway directs
movements in response to auditory information
Polymodal visual and auditory pathway supports
object categorization in the superior temporal sulcus
Visual and auditory information projects to the
medial temporal lobe to support long-term memory
Pathways to the frontal lobe are important for
motor control and short-term memory
Olfactory bulb projections to the pyriform cortex are important for
odor perception and memory
Ventral stream was initially understood as a
visual pathway, but newer research suggests there are at least six components
Projections from occipitotemporal pathway project to
striatum to support skill learning
Pathway from inferotemporal cortex to amygdala supports the
processing of emotional stimuli
Pathway from inferotemporal cortex to ventral striatum provides information about
stimulus valence
Multiple pathways from area TE project to the medial temporal lobe, orbitofrontal cortex, and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex; are involved in
long-term memory, object–reward pairings, and working memory
Temporal lobe analyzes sensory information as it enters the nervous system (4)
Processes auditory input
Recognizes visual objects
Stores long-term memories
Processes olfactory input
temporal lobe quickly
categorizing objects is important for accurate perception and memory
Damage to temporal lobe results in deficits in
identifying and categorizing stimuli
Cross-modal matching enables the integration of
visual and auditory information and likely involves the superior temporal sulcus
Olfactory information is processed in the
temporal lobe and added to perception of the stimulus
Sensory input is combined and stored by the
structures of the medial temporal lobe
The affective response is the
subjective feeling about the stimulus
Affective response involves the
amygdala in the medial temporal lobe
Associates the stimulus with positive
neutral, or negative consequences
Following damage to the amygdala, animals do not have an
emotional response to threatening stimuli
Hippocampus contains place cells to encode
location in space and support navigation
Superior Temporal Sulcus
detects biological motion, which is movement of relevance to the species
Understanding the intentions of others is an important part of
social cognition, which depends on multimodal integration in the STS
Body motion, facial movements, and voice cues enable us to
recognize people from a safe distance and enable us to infer the intentions of others
Cells in STS are sensitive to
mouth movements and vocal characteristics
Other cells are responsive to
body motion in a particular direction or to particular facial expressions
When studying brain activity associated with complex visual scenes from movies, multiple subjects showed similar patterns of activity in
auditory and visual regions of the temporal lobe
Different types of scenes from the movie, such as close-ups of faces versus landscape scenes, activated
different parts of the brain
Within the frontal and parietal lobes, there was little
similarity in patterns of brain activity between subjects
Cells in different regions of the temporal lobe learn to
to respond to different categories of stimuli based on experience
Activity in TE depends on
complex combinations of features, including orientation, size, color, and texture
Objects activate different combinations of cells based on the
overall features they possess
The similar pattern of overall activity, despite small changes in the individual objects, may be the basis for
categorization
Experience and training alter
the response patterns of TE neurons
Neurons in the temporal lobe form
cortical columns that respond to categories and shapes
In monkeys, some cells in the temporal lobe respond selectively to
facial identity, and others respond selectively to facial expression
Recognition of pictures is impaired if they are presented
inverted, but the recognition of faces shows greater impairment, suggesting there is a selective ability to recognize upright faces
There are specific cortical regions within the occipital and temporal lobes involved in
recognizing upright faces
Lesions to the right temporal lobe have a greater impact on the ability to process
faces than do lesions to the left temporal lobe
Multiple tonotopic maps exist in the
temporal lobe, but the nature and function of these maps is not well understood
Speech sounds are largely restricted to specific
ranges of frequency, known as formants
Vowels tend to have a constant
frequency
Consonants tend to change
frequency rapidly
The spectrogram of the speech sounds varies depending on the context, but
the sounds are still perceived as the same by the listener
Speech sounds change very rapidly but are
are still perceived without difficulty
Nonlinguistic sounds are perceived as a
a buzz if presented above five segments per second
Typical speech occurs at
8–10 segments per second
Maximum comprehensible speech is about
30 segments per second
Perceived speech is processed in
in parallel pathways to extract meaning and to plan articulatory movements
Syntax is the
rules of grammar, and semantics refers to the meaning of words
Language can be any form of
information exchange, including written language, Braille, and sign language
Receptive language is
taking in and comprehending information
Expressive language
the ability to produce language
While language is based on individual sound elements, music perception requires
the interaction of multiple elements and the relationship between them
Loudness is
subjective magnitude of the sound
Timbre refers to the
distinct qualities or complexities of the sound
Pitch describes the
subjective position of the sound on the musical scale and is related to frequency
The fundamental frequency is the
lowest frequency of a note
Overtones are
higher frequencies included in the sound, and are generally multiples of the fundamental frequency
Even when the fundamental frequency is filtered out, the auditory system can still
identify it based on the overtones
Rhythm (timing) is important for
music perception, including the duration of the individual tones and the temporal regularity of the music (meter)
Left temporal lobe is predominant for
temporal grouping for rhythm
Right temporal lobe is predominant for
perceiving meter
Experience can change how
music is represented in the brain
The brains of musicians are more
responsive to musical information
The brains of musicians have a greater volume of
of gray matter in Heschl’s gyrus
Increases in gray matter are correlated with
musical ability
There are music-related structural differences in brain regions outside the temporal lobe, including in
Broca’s area of the frontal lobe
Areas associated with the language network are also active during
musical tasks
The posterior portion of the pyriform cortex is contained within the
temporal lobe
Most olfactory studies have been conducted in
rodents
Posterior pyriform cortex connects with the entorhinal and perirhinal cortices and the amygdala,
connecting olfactory sensations to memory and emotion
Extensive connections between entorhinal cortex and medial temporal lobe structures support
memory
Synchronous activity in the hippocampus and multiple cortical regions seems to be important for the
convergences of the networks
Temporal-lobe language networks involve the
left inferior temporal gyrus, left supplementary motor area, left thalamus, and left posterior temporal cortex
Face perception involves the
inferior occipital cortex and the fusiform gyrus
Damage to primary auditory cortex impairs the ability to
discriminate rapidly presented and complex patterns of stimuli
Patients with temporal lobe damage have difficulty discriminating
speech, reporting that people are talking too quickly
Control subjects can identify which of two sounds comes first when they are separated by
50–60 milliseconds
Patients with temporal-lobe damage need up to
500 milliseconds between sounds to correctly identify which occurred first
Damage to Wernicke’s area produces
aphasia
Patients with damage to the right temporal lobe are impaired discriminating between sounds of
different pitch
Difficulty discriminating between rhythms is associated with damage to the
right posterior superior temporal gyrus
Difficulty discriminating between musical pieces with different meters is associated with damage to the
anterior temporal lobe on either side
About 4% of the population has congenital amusica, meaning
meaning they are tone deaf, and this cannot be remedied by music training
Patients with damage to the right temporal lobe can describe a visual scene accurately, but they fail to
notice things that are out of place, such as an oil painting in a monkey’s cage
Patients with damage to the right temporal lobe are impaired at discriminating
complex patterns
Patients with damage to the right temporal lobe fail to perceive or understand
subtle social cues
When multiple stimuli are presented simultaneously, the brain determines which stimulus to
attend to
For auditory stimuli, attention can be focused on the
left or the right ear
For visual stimuli, attention can be focused on the
left or the right visual field
Patients with temporal-lobe damage are impaired shifting
attention from one stimulus to another
Damage to the right temporal lobe results in
bilateral deficits in attention shifting
Damage to the left temporal lobe results in
unilateral deficits in attention shifting
Damage to the left temporal lobe results in impairments in
categorization
Temporal-lobe seizures are often associated with
olfactory auras
Temporal-lobe epilepsy and surgical damage to the temporal lobe to prevent seizures result in
impaired perception of odors and memory for odors
Context is important to understanding the
meaning of a stimulus
Similarly, context can be important for identifying a
person, and, if you see them in a different context, you may not recognize them
Damage to the right temporal cortex impairs the ability of people to
interpret information from context
Removal of the medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus and adjacent cortex, resulted in
anterograde amnesia, or the inability to form new memories
Damage to the inferotemporal cortex interferes with
conscious recall of information, and greater damage is associated with greater impairment
Damage to the left hemisphere of inferotemporal cortex results in
impairments for verbal material
Damage to the right hemisphere
of inferotemporal cortex results in
impairments for nonverbal material
Stimulation of medial temporal cortex produces feelings of
fear
Temporal-lobe epilepsy is associated with
personality changes that emphasize trivia and details in daily life
Personality changes occur after damage to either lobe, but are more common after damage to the
right hemisphere
Bilateral damage to the amygdala results in
increased sexual behaviors
Dichotic listening and Visual Object and Space Perception Battery assess
auditory and visual processing
Weschler Memory Scale assess
general verbal memory using multiple subtests
Rey Complex Figure Test evaluates
nonverbal memory by asking subjects to remember to reproduce a complex figure
Token Test assesses
language comprehension, but cannot narrow down the region of deficit within the left hemisphere
