chapter 15: the temporal lobe

Question 1

Which key subcortical structures are in the temporal lobe?

Answer 1

The amygdala and hippocampus.

Question 2

Which landmark demarcates the temporal lobe dorsal/ventrally?

Answer 2

The lateral sylvian fissure.

Question 3

Which landmarks divide the dorsal, medial, ventral temporal lobes?

Answer 3

The superior temporal gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus.

Question 4

The lateral temporal includes areas associated with which senses? Medial temporal?

Answer 4

Lateral: auditory areas and (part of) ventral visual stream

Medial: olfactory (pyriform) cortex.

Gustatory cortex contained in insula, deep in sylvian fissure

Question 5

Which functions is the temporal-parietal junction involved in?

Answer 5

Attention, memory, social decision-making.

Question 6

Superior temporal sulcus contains __________ __________ areas as part of the ventral stream.

Answer 6

Multimodal association areas.

Question 7

Polymodal visual and auditory pathway supports object categorization in which area?

Answer 7

The superior temporal sulcus.

Question 8

__________ __________ lobe supports long-term memory, __________ lobe important for motor control and short-term memory.

Answer 8

medial temporal, frontal.

Question 9

Olfactory bulb projections to __________ cortex important for odour perception and memory.

Answer 9

piriform.

Question 10

Within the ventral stream, projections from the occipitotemporal pathway to the striatum support what?

Answer 10

Skill learning.

Question 11

Within the ventral stream, projections from the inferotemporal cortex to the amygdala support what?

Answer 11

Processing of emotional stimuli.

Question 12

Within the ventral stream, projections from the inferotemporal cortex to the ventral striatum support what?

Answer 12

Information regarding stimulus valence.

Question 13

Multiple pathways from area TE/inferotemporal cortex are involved in which processes?

Answer 13

Long-term memory, object-reward pairings, working memory.

Question 14

What is the primary purpose of the temporal lobe?

Answer 14

To process, analyze, and recognize sensory information as it enters the nervous system.

Question 15

Which temporal lobe area is responsible for shifting attentional spotlight?

Answer 15

The inferotemporal cortex.

Question 16

Cross-modal matching in the temporal cortex enables what via which structure?

Answer 16

Integration of visual and auditory information in superior temporal sulcus.

Question 17

Both temporal and parietal lobes combine sensory information at temporoparietal junction. How do their roles differ?

Answer 17

Parietal integrates information for the purposes of action and coordination (dorsal ‘how’ stream); temporal integrates information for categorization (ventral ‘what’ stream).

Question 18

What are affective responses? Which structure is involved in them?

Answer 18

Subjective feeling about stimuli. Regulated by amygdala (emotion). Rubber hand illusion resisted by stronger amygdala.

Question 19

Where are the olfactory and gustatory cortices located, respectively.

Answer 19

Olfactory (pyriform) cortex: medial temporal
Gustatory cortex: insula inside Sylvian fissure

Question 20

Which sensory pathways project to the temporal lobe?

Answer 20

Polymodal visual and auditory pathway (to STS)
Audiovisual ventral stream (to medial temporal/basal ganglia)
From olfactory bulb to piriform cortex

Question 21

Which sensory pathways project from the temporal lobe?

Answer 21

Dorsal auditory pathway (to occipital)
Motor control and short-term memory pathways (to frontal)

Question 22

Ventral stream is not just for visual information. What other pathways within it support which functions?

Answer 22

Occipitotemporal pathway to striatum for skill learning
Inferotemporal to:
amygdala for emotion
ventral striatum for stimulus valence
medial temporal, orbitofrontal, ventrolateral for long-term memory, object-reward, working memory.

Question 23

Which temporal lobe area detects biological motion, plays key role in social recognition and cognition?

Answer 23

Superior temporal sulcus.

Question 24

Describe the two pathways of face processing.

Answer 24

STS face area: responsible for changeable traits like expression; detects motion
Fusiform face area: responsible for invariant traits; detects form

Question 25

What is the ethological significance of neural activity when perceiving object movement direction?

Answer 25

More neuronal activity when perceiving object moving toward subject vs other directions due to potential threat level.

Forward by far the most, back less, then static, side-to-side the least.

Question 26

Facial recognition favours which visual field? Temporal lobe cells are specialized towards facial __________ or facial __________.

Answer 26

Left visual field, facial identity, facial expression.

Question 27

Facial recognition is to some degree (right/left) lateralized.

Answer 27

right.

Question 28

Auditory processing is organized into __________ maps, mapped by frequency. Speech sounds are largely restricted to ranges of frequency, known as __________.

Answer 28

tonotopic, formants.

Question 29

Nonlinguistic sounds unable to be differentiated above _ segments per second, typical speech is at __ to __ segments per second, maximum speech at __ per second.

Answer 29

5, 8 to 10, 30.

Question 30

Define fundamental frequency, overtones, rhythm, meter.

Answer 30

Fundamental frequency: lowest frequency of a note
Overtones: higher frequencies, usually multiples/harmonics of fundamental frequency
Rhythm: timing of music (left)
Meter: duration of individual tones and temporal regularity of music (right)

Question 31

Brains of musicians have structural differences in which key brain areas?

Answer 31

Heschl’s gyrus (A1), Broca’s area in left frontal lobe.

Question 32

Which areas are responsible for smell’s strong relationship with memory?

Answer 32

Posterior piriform connects with entorhinal and perirhinal cortices and amygdala.

Question 33

Entorhinal cortex and medial temporal lobe structures support which function?

Answer 33

Memory.

Question 34

How does damage to Heschl’s gyrus, temporal lobe, and Wernicke’s area affect speech perception respectively?

Answer 34

A1: impaired ability to discriminate rapidly presented/complex stimuli
Temporal: difficulty with speech, reports people talking too fast
Wernicke’s area: complete speech aphasia.

Question 35

Damage to (left/right) temporal impairs attention shifting bilaterally, damage to (left/right) impairs attention shifting unilaterally.

Answer 35

right, left.

Question 36

Damage to (left/right) temporal impairs categorization, damage to (left/right) impairs interpretation of information by context.

Answer 36

left, right.

Question 37

Removal of medial temporal results in __________ __________, damage to inferotemporal affects __________ __________ of information.

Answer 37

anterograde amnesia, conscious recall.

Question 38

Bilateral damage to the amygdala results in what behaviour?

Answer 38

Increased sexual behaviour.

Question 39

Stimulation of medial temporal results in what emotion? Temporal-lobe epilepsy is associated with what personality changes?

Answer 39

Fear; emphasis on trivia and details of daily life.

Question 40

Which standardized tests characterize the following:
Auditory and visual processing, verbal memory, nonverbal memory, language comprehension.

Answer 40

Dichotic listening/visual object space perception battery, Weschler memory scale, Rey complex figure test, token test.