Week 2: Chapter 15 - The temporal lobes Flashcards
Where are the temporal lobes located in the brain?
Below the lateral (Sylvian) fissure and in front of the occipital cortex.
What key structures are included in the temporal lobes?
Limbic cortex, amygdala, hippocampal formation, and widespread connections throughout the brain.
What does the lateral surface of the temporal cortex process?
Auditory information and visual object and face recognition via the ventral visual stream.
What is the function of the inferotemporal cortex?
Visual processing, especially object and face recognition.
What is the role of the superior temporal sulcus (STS)?
Multisensory integration (vision, hearing, touch) and connection with frontal, parietal, and limbic regions.
Which areas are part of the medial temporal region?
Hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, perirhinal cortex, subiculum, and fusiform gyrus.
What is the function of the parahippocampal cortex?
Memory and spatial processing.
What is the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) involved in?
Attention, memory, language, social cognition, and social decision-making.
What brain regions does the temporal cortex send outputs to?
Frontal and parietal association areas, limbic system, and basal ganglia.
What structure connects the left and right temporal lobes?
Corpus callosum.
What structure connects medial temporal regions like the amygdala?
Anterior commissure.
What is the function of the Hierarchical Sensory Pathway?
Stimulus recognition; part of ventral visual and auditory streams.
What does the Dorsal Auditory Pathway do?
Guides movement in response to sound; locates sounds in space.
What is the role of the Polymodal Pathway?
Stimulus categorization through multisensory integration in the STS.
What does the Medial Temporal Projection support?
Long-term memory via the perirhinal, entorhinal cortices, hippocampus, and amygdala.
What does the Frontal-Lobe Projection influence?
Movement control, short-term memory, and emotional regulation.
How did Kravitz et al. (2013) redefine the ventral stream?
As a network of at least six cortical and subcortical pathways contributing to perception, memory, emotion, and decision-making.
What is the function of the Occipitotemporal–Neostriatal Pathway?
Habit and skill learning through projections to the neostriatum.
What role does the Inferotemporal–Amygdala Pathway play?
Emotional evaluation of visual stimuli.
What does the Inferotemporal–Ventral Striatum Pathway assess?
Stimulus valence or motivational/reward value.
What is the function of projections from the inferotemporal cortex to the medial temporal cortex?
Support for long-term memory formation.
What does the Inferotemporal–Orbitofrontal Pathway contribute to?
Decision-making based on object-reward associations.
What is the function of the Inferotemporal–Ventrolateral Prefrontal Pathway?
Object-related working memory and visual information manipulation.
What are the major functions of the temporal lobe?
Integration of sensory input, emotional response, memory, and spatial navigation.
What structures are included in the temporal lobe relevant to these functions?
Primary auditory cortex, secondary auditory and visual areas, amygdala, and hippocampus.
What sensory roles does the temporal lobe serve?
Processes auditory input, visual object recognition, and long-term storage of sensory info.
What pathway supports object recognition and categorization?
The ventral visual stream, including the inferotemporal cortex.
What structure is crucial for cross-modal matching of auditory and visual stimuli?
The superior temporal sulcus (STS).
What deficit arises from temporal lobe damage in sensory processing?
Impaired stimulus identification and categorization despite intact detection and location.
What is the role of the amygdala in the temporal lobe?
Links sensory input with emotional meaning and mediates physiological responses.
What happens if the affective system is damaged?
Inappropriate or dangerous behavior due to failure to emotionally respond to stimuli.
What structure supports spatial navigation and memory?
The hippocampus.
How does the hippocampus aid in avoiding threats like a snake?
Encodes spatial environments and enables re-routing via memory.
What social function is the STS critical for?
Interpreting biological motion (e.g., gaze, facial expressions, body posture).
What is “theory of mind” and how is it linked to the STS?
The capacity to infer others’ intentions, supported by the STS.
How does the STS respond to combined auditory and visual stimuli like speech?
It shows heightened activity, integrating mouth movements with vocal sounds.
What effect does STS damage have on social perception?
Impaired ability to process biological motion and reduced social awareness.
What did Perrett’s research show about STS neurons?
They are selective for features like facial expression, gaze, and movement direction.
Which visual stream is associated with the temporal lobe?
The ventral stream.
What did Hasson et al. (2004) discover during natural film viewing?
Synchronized activation in the temporal lobe in response to audiovisual content.
What do FFA and PPA respond to?
FFA to faces, PPA to places/scenes.
What did Tanaka find about neurons in the inferotemporal cortex?
They respond to complex features and are organized in columns.
How does experience affect visual selectivity in the temporal lobe?
Training enhances neuronal responsiveness to specific shapes.
What did Fuster and Jervey find regarding visual working memory?
Neurons in the inferotemporal cortex maintain activity after a stimulus disappears.
Why are faces considered special visual stimuli?
They convey social info and are processed with high accuracy and speed.
What brain areas are part of the face-perception system?
Fusiform face area (FFA), occipital face area, and temporal lobe regions.
What does the Thatcher illusion demonstrate?
Our sensitivity to upright facial configuration.
What does Haxby’s model propose?
A core system for identity and expression, and an extended system for emotion and speech cues.
How does face perception show hemispheric asymmetry?
Right temporal lesions impair recognition more than left lesions.
Why do people often dislike photos of themselves?
They differ from the mirror-reversed image we’re used to seeing.
What deficits follow left temporal lobe damage?
Verbal memory loss and speech sound processing deficits.
What deficits follow right temporal lobe damage?
Face recognition problems and difficulties in music and nonverbal memory.
What does bilateral damage to the temporal lobes cause?
Severe memory and emotional impairments, worse than unilateral damage.
What auditory symptom is rare despite bilateral auditory cortex damage?
Cortical deafness (rare); auditory hallucinations are more common.
What does temporal-lobe damage impair regarding speech perception?
Discrimination of rapid sound changes—patients say “people speak too fast.”
What is the deficit in temporal order of sounds?
Requires longer gaps (up to 500 ms) to detect sound order vs. 50–60 ms in healthy individuals.
Which hemisphere is most affected in speech sound discrimination?
Left temporal lobe.
What condition results from inability to recognize spoken words despite intact hearing?
Word deafness.
Do temporal lobectomies cause major visual field loss?
No, but they impair complex visual processing and recognition.
What kind of visual test reveals deficits after right temporal lobectomy?
McGill Picture-Anomalies Test (e.g., painting in a monkey’s cage).
What test shows poor facial recognition in right temporal lobe patients?
Mooney Closure Test.
Which brain region processes social visual cues like body language?
Superior temporal sulcus (STS).
What kind of social signal might a patient with right temporal damage misinterpret?
Subtle gestures like someone glancing at a watch.
What is impaired in auditory and visual input selection after temporal-lobe damage?
The ability to filter and select relevant stimuli.
What does the dichotic listening test assess?
Auditory selective attention and hemispheric dominance.
How does left temporal damage affect dichotic listening?
Reduced performance; impaired right-ear (left-hemisphere) processing.
How does right temporal lobe damage affect visual selection?
Impaired attention in both visual fields.
What categorization ability is impaired by left temporal damage?
Grouping familiar objects or words into meaningful categories.
What test might a patient fail due to categorization deficits?
Naming animals after hearing the category “animal”.
Which region is crucial for nested category processing (e.g., duck as bird, animal)?
Posterior left temporal lobe.
How does temporal-lobe damage affect context usage?
Inability to interpret stimuli based on context (e.g., misreading word “fall”).
What test reveals this context deficit?
McGill Picture-Anomalies Test.
What memory type is impaired after medial temporal damage?
Long-term memory, especially conscious recall.
What condition results from bilateral medial temporal damage?
Anterograde amnesia.
What kind of memory does the left temporal lobe support?
Verbal memory (e.g., words, stories).
What kind of memory is impaired after right temporal lobe damage?
Nonverbal memory (e.g., faces, tunes, shapes).
What emotional response can be triggered by anterior/medial temporal stimulation?
Intense emotions like fear.
What is the “temporal-lobe personality”?
Traits like:
* Pedantic speech
* Egocentricity
* Perseveration
* Paranoia
* Religious preoccupation
* Aggressiveness
After which side’s lobectomy is personality change more common?
Right temporal lobectomy.
What sexual behavior change occurs after bilateral temporal damage?
Intensified or disinhibited sexual behavior.
Is altered sexual behavior seen after unilateral damage?
No, typically only after bilateral damage.
What does the Dichotic Listening Test assess?
Auditory processing and hemispheric lateralization of language function.
What does the Visual Object and Space Perception Battery evaluate?
Object recognition and spatial awareness in visual perception.
What is the most widely used test for verbal memory?
Wechsler Memory Scale-IV.
What do the Paired Associates and Logical Memory subtests measure?
Verbal recall through word-pair learning and story recall, respectively.
Why are verbal memory tests important in assessing temporal lobe function?
They help isolate memory impairments from general attention problems.
What test is most effective for assessing nonverbal memory?
Rey Complex Figure Test.
How is the Rey Complex Figure Test administered?
The patient copies a complex figure, then reproduces it from memory after 45 minutes.
What limitation does the Rey Complex Figure Test have?
Performance can be affected by motivation or depression, not just memory.
What does the Token Test evaluate?
Language comprehension abilities.
What is a limitation of the Token Test?
It can detect language impairment but cannot localize the lesion within the left hemisphere.
Is it likely for a patient with temporal-lobe damage to score normally on all tests?
No, it’s highly unlikely that they would perform normally on all these assessments.
