Chapter 15 - Temporal Lobe

Question 1

What are the three major areas of the temporal lobe?

Answer 1

1) Superior temporal gyrus (located just below lateral/sylvian fissure)
2) Middle temporal gyrus
3) Inferior temporal gyrus

Question 2

What makes up the olfactory cortex?

Answer 2

• Uncus and the piriform cortex

Question 3

Other than the main three, which major gyri are found within the temporal lobes?

Answer 3

• The parahippocampal gyrus
• Fusiform gyrus
• Lingual gyrus

Question 4

What type of regions compose the STS? What type of input does it receive?

Answer 4

• Contain many subregions of polymodal cortex
• Receives input from auditory, visual, and somatic regions
• Also receives input from the other two polymodal regions (frontal and parietal) and the paralimbic cortex

Question 5

What brain components can be found within the parahippocampal gyrus?

Answer 5

• The parahippocampal cortex
• The perirhinal cortex
• The entorhinal cortex

Question 6

T/F: The parahippocampal cortex is located more laterally.

Answer 6

• FALSE
• Located very medially, more towards the posterior end

Question 7

T/F: Most of the superior temporal lobe is auditory.

Answer 7

• TRUE

Question 8

Which Brodmann’s area does A1 correspond to?

Answer 8

• 41

Question 9

Where does the temporal cortex receive afferent connections from?

Answer 9

• Different sensory systems

Question 10

What efferent connections does the temporal cortex have?

Answer 10

• Frontal and parietal association regions
• Limbic system
• Basal Ganglia

Question 11

What connects the neocortex of the two temporal lobes?

Answer 11

• The corpus callosum

Question 12

What connects the medial temporal cortex and amygdala between the two hemispheres?

Answer 12

• The anterior commissure

Question 13

What general areas make up the medial temporal lobe area?

Answer 13

• Amygdala and adjacent cortex (uncus)
• The hippocampus and surrounding cortex (subiculum, entorhinal, perirhinal, parahippocampal)
• Fusiform gyrus

Question 14

What is the purpose of the medial temporal projections from auditory and visual association areas?

Answer 14

• They are very important for long-term memory

Question 15

What’s the general cortical map of projections from the medial temporal areas?

Answer 15

1) Auditory and visual associaton areas
2) Perirhinal cortex
3) Entorhinal cortex
4) hippocampus and/or amygdala

Question 16

What’s the purpose of projections from visual and auditory and somatic areas converging upon the STS?

Answer 16

• Most likely a polymodal pathway that underlies stimulus categorization
• Involved in cross-modal matching

Question 17

What’s the function of the dorsal auditory pathway projections?

Answer 17

• Directs movements with respect to auditory information

Question 18

What are projections from the temporal lobes to the frontal lobes help achieve?

Answer 18

• Help with movement control, short-term memory, and affect/emotion/mood

Question 19

What do connections from the olfactory bulb to the temporal piriform cortex help achieve?

Answer 19

• Odor perception and memory
• Routed via the dorsomedial nucleus in thalamus
• Also has connections to the amygdala, OFC and entorhinal cortex

Question 20

Why is the temporal lobe considered multi-functional?

Answer 20

• Houses auditory cortex, limbic cortex (emotions), part of olfactory cortex, amygdala and hippocampus
• Play major role in visual object recognition, especially in the perception of faces

Question 21

What’s biological motion?

Answer 21

• Movements that have a particular relevance to a species
• Ex. Ability to read eyes, lips, hand movements

Question 22

How is the STS involved in biological motion?

Answer 22

• STS receives multimodal inputs that play a role in categorizing stimuli
• Understanding social stimuli is important for social cognition/theory of mind (understanding the the mental states of others)

Question 23

What’s considered the “classic” model for explaining the neural pathways for face processing?

Answer 23

• The STS stream helps classify changeable characteristics of the person (i.e., expression, gaze); social cognition
• The FFA stream helps classify invariant characteristics of the person (i.e., identity, gender)

Question 24

What does the alternative model for explaining the neural pathways for face processing?

Answer 24

• The STS stream is involved in classifying motion
• The FFA stream is involved in classifying form
• The two streams are not completely separate in this model

Question 25

Why do we perceive ourselves differently from when we look at ourselves in the mirror versus in a photograph?

Answer 25

- Due to the sides of the face being flipped in a reflection our brains are processing a different side of the face versus when we're looking at a photo

Question 26

What are the individual strengths of the left and right temporal lobes?

Answer 26

- Left - verbal memory, speech sound processing - Right - Nonverbal memory (e.g., remembering faces), processing of music, and face processing

Question 27

What can bilateral damage to A1 cause?

Answer 27

- Patients will have difficulty in discriminating speech sounds and judging their temporal order, especially after left lesions - Complex stimuli is hard to understand - Does not make them cortically deaf

Question 28

Wernicke's aphasia?

Answer 28

- Inability to comprehend or produce meaningful speech, even though the production of words remains intact - Talk comes out as gibberish, very difficult to communicate with - Intelligence unaffected - Wernicke's area contains sound images of words

Question 29

What's Broca's aphasia?

Answer 29

- Inability to produce speech - Broca's area contains motor programs for speech

Question 30

T/F: The arcuate fasciculus connects Wernicke's and Broca's areas

Answer 30

- TRUE - It's an intrahemispheric connection

Question 31

What's the general cortical map for producing speech?

Answer 31

1) Thought from frontal lobes 2) Wernicke's area 3) Broca's area (motor programs) 4) Facial area of motor cortex (M1) 5) Cranial nerves 6) Engage vocal apparatus for speaking

Question 32

What can right temporal damage to A1 lead to?

Answer 32

- Impaired pitch discrimination (frequency)

Question 33

What is the right posterior superior temporal gyrus involved in?

Answer 33

- May be involved in rhythm discrimination

Question 34

What can anterior damage to either temporal lobe impact?

Answer 34

- Can make meter discrimination difficult

Question 35

Congenital amusia?

Answer 35

- i.e., tone deafness - Affects around 4% of people - Can't identify pitch or melody - Demonstrates how music is not a cultural phenomenon

Question 36

What can damage to the inferotemporal cortex result in?

Answer 36

- Can cause disorders of visual perception due to ventral stream of visual processing

Question 37

What did Milner (1968) discover in patients with right temporal lobectomies?

Answer 37

- Had impairments in the McGill Picture Anomaly Test - Also tend to be impaired in perceiving subtle social cues

Question 38

Mooney face test?

Answer 38

- Subjects must identify the face within ambiguous shadows - Those with right temporal damage do not perform well

Question 39

How is the inferotemporal cortex involved in memory?

Answer 39

- Important for conscious/explicit recall of info

Question 40

Left vs. right temporal lobes in memory?

Answer 40

- Left - verbal recall - Right - nonverbal recall

Question 41

What can stimulation of anterior and medial temporal cortex produce?

Answer 41

- Can produce feelings of fear

Question 42

What symptoms are characterized by the "temporal lobe personality"?

Answer 42

- Pedantic speech (overly formal) - Perseveration in speech - Egocentricity - Paranoia - Preoccupation with religion - Aggressive outbursts - Hypersexuality