Lecture 11: Temporal Lobes Flashcards
Inferotemporal Cortex
are TE in von Economo’s designation
visual regions of the temporal cortex
Insula
tissue in the lateral (Sylvain) fissure
includes gustatory and auditory association cortices
Temporal-Parietal Junction (TPJ)
a region where the temporal and parietal lobes meet at the end of the Sylvain fissure
also called the temporoparietal junction
Neostriatum
the caudate nucleus plus putamen of the basal ganglia
also called the striatum
Cross-Modal Matching
an ability to match sensory characteristics of objects across sensory modalities
for example, the ability to visually recognize an object that was previously perceived by touch
Social Cognition
perceptual categorization that enables a person to develop hypotheses about other people’s intentions
also referred to as theory of mind
Prosody
tone of voice
variation in stress, pitch, and rhythm of speech that conveys different shades of meaning
Heschl’s Gyrus
a gyrus of the human temporal lobe that is roughly equivalent to auditory area I
also known as the transverse temporal gyrus
Wernicke Aphasia
an inability to comprehend or to produce meaningful speech even though the production of words remains intact
Amusia
tone deafness
inability to produce (motor) or to comprehend (sensory) musical sounds
Anterograde Amnesia
inability to acquire new memories subsequent to a disturbance such as head injury, electroconvulsive shock, or certain degenerative diseases
Where is the temporal lobe?
the tissue below Sylvian fissure and anterior to occipital lobe
What are the subcortical temporal lobe structures?
limbic cortex (inferior portions of the limbic system)
amygdala
hippocampal formation
What are the lateral surfaces of the temporal lobe?
auditory areas: A1 tucked into Sylvian fissure
ventral stream of visual information: inferior temporal cortex or TE
What is the medial temporal cortex?
includes amygdala and adjacent cortex, hippocampus and surrounding cortex, and fusiform gyrus
What is the posterior end of medial temporal lobe?
para-hippocampal cortex
PPA (para-hippocampal place area): landmark and scene recognition
What is the multimodal cortex or polymodal cortex?
area under superior temporal sulcus
receives input from auditory, visual, & somatic regions
What is the insula?
area under Sylvian fissure
gustatory cortex: primary taste center, link this info to emotion
auditory association cortex: very close to primary auditory cortex
role in conscious urges (cue-indued drug urges)
possible role in nicotine addiction
What was the Naqvi et al. (2007) study on the role of the insula in nicotine addiction?
patient that smoke who suffered a stroke; doctor tells them to quit smoking
stroke patients: >5 cig/day, >2 years
1 year follow-up: see how well they were able to stop smoking
disruption to insula: quit 1 day after lesion, no relapse, felt quitting was easy, no urges
with complete dysfunction of the insula, nicotine addiction was wiped out, can’t form causal relationship though
What are the afferent projections from the temporal cortex?
sensory systems
What are the efferent projections from the temporal cortex?
parietal and frontal association regions, limbic system, and basal ganglia
What structures connect the left and right temporal cortex?
corpus callosum
anterior commissure
What is the hierarchical sensory pathway?
incoming auditory & visual information
stimulus recognition - ventral pathways for vision and audition
What is the dorsal auditory pathway?
from auditory cortex to posterior parietal
detection of spatial location of sounds; movement; sound recognition
What is the polymodal pathway?
from auditory and visual areas to polymodal cortex (STS): use both visual and auditory info when someone is speaking
stimulus categorization and cross-model matching
e.g. McGurk effect: visual will override auditory when thing clash but are close enough
What is the medial temporal projection?
from auditory and visual areas to medial temporal lobe, limbic cortex, hippocampal formation, and amygdala
perforant pathway - major input to HC
long-term potentiation pathway: formation of stronger connection for more efficient communication
What is the frontal lobe projection?
auditory and visual cortex to frontal lobe
movement control
short-term memory
affect: contribute emotional impulses
What are the three basic sensory functions of the temporal lobe?
processing auditory input
visual object recognition
long-term storage of information
What are the sensory processes in the temporal lobe?
identification and categorization of stimuli
cross-model matching
What is cross-modal matching?
matching visual and auditory information - ventriloquism effect
depends on cortex of superior temporal sulcus
What is columnergic organization in the temporal lobe?
neurons in the temporal lobe form cortical columns that respond to categories of shapes
stroke can specifically wipe out columns for certain things
What are affective responses in the temporal lobe?
emotional responses associated with particular stimuli
amygdala in the temporal lobe
What is the difference in amygdala activation in adults compared to teenagers?
adults: get emotions right most of the time
teenager: report more anger in faces, more amygdala activation, less frontal activation
What is spatial navigation in the temporal lobe?
hippocampus - spatial memory
placed cells discovered by O’Feefe in 1976
brain builds map of space; more brain is exposed to space it’ll develop a firing pattern
What is the experimental evidence for hippocampal place cells?
square cage new to the rat, let them explore; majority of response occurs in a specific area, occurs after a lot of time spent in the cage
rat has to be in specific positions for the cell to fire; move them to a bigger cage; same area causes activation, but range of activation increases to adjust to a different environment
What is the Morris Water Maze Task?
rat is placed in a pool with a platform just below surface of water; there are spatial markers around the room the rat can use to recognize where the platform is
can make the water opaque so they have to use spatial cues to find pedestal, also put them in different start spots
non lesion rats: always swim to pedestal, use spatial cues
hippocampal lesion rats: do clear learning trial, once water is milky, they cannot find pedestal, no memory formation of spatial cues, no spatial map
What is the relationship between superior temporal sulcus (STS) and biological motion?
imaging reveals activation in STS during perception of biological motion
What is biological motion?
movements relevant to a species
allow us to guess others’ intentions
social cognition or “theory of mind” (mirror neuron system)
What is the Perrett et al. (1990) study on STS activation and biological motion?
show different types of stimuli and measure response
STS neurons in the observing monkey respond more strongly to an approaching body than to the same body moving in other directions or standing still
most firing when they see someone approaching
STS cells maximally responsive to particular types of biological motion
What is the Hasson et al. (2004) study on the fMRI of patients watching “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”?
free viewing pf the memory: just lying in the fMRI watching a movie, look at what brain areas are active, not asked to do anything else
extensive activity in auditory and visual regions in temporal lobe, in STS and cingulate regions (correlated across 5 participants); nothing different happening in auditory or visual systems across all participants
selective activation to precise moment-to-moment film content (faces and scenes)
regions of parietal and frontal lobes showed no intersubject coherence (i.e. dissociation between sensation and experience)
everyone gets the same stimuli, but people interpret that stimuli differently
a lot more variety in frontal and parietal lobes during movie viewing; because your personal interpretation of the movie is individualized (interest, humor, etc.)
During what scenes of the movie is the FFA most active?
fusiform face area
most active during close-ups of faces, consistent across subjects
During what scenes of the movie is the PPA most active?
para-hippocampal place area
mostly active in wide shots, sweeping scenery
consistent across participants
What are symptoms of temporal lobe lesions?
auditory disturbance
disorders of music perception
disturbance of selection of visual and auditory input
impaired organization and categorization; difficulty placing words or pictures into categories
inability to use contextual information (memory)
long-term memory problems
altered personality and affective behavior
