The Temporal Lobes

Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS)

• Imaging reveals activation in the

STS during perception of
biological motion

• Biological Motion
– Movements relevant to a
species
– Allow us to guess others’
intentions
– Social Cognition or “theory of
mind”
This data
suggests that
cells in the STS
are maximally
sensitive to
primate bodies
that are moving
in a particular
direction
Visual Processing
 Visual Processing

• Hasson and colleagues

– Used fMRI to monitor cortical activity with
viewing a film

– Findings:
• Extensive activity in the auditory and visual regions
in the temporal lobe, in the STS and cingulate
regions
• Selective activation to precise moment-to-moment
film content
One particular region in the dogs’
temporal lobes responded more
strongly to stills or movies of dog
and human faces than it did to
inanimate objects, like a desk
chair.

Dogs Currently Active in Emory fMRI Studies and Dogs in

Training. Dogs in group ALPHA (A-Team) began scanning in
2012, and the latest group HOTEL began in January 2018.

http://www.neuropolicy.emory.edu/resources/index.html
 Visual Processing

• Tanaka & colleagues

– Cells in area TE
require complex
features for activation
– Cells with similar
selectivity cluster in
vertical columns
– Specificity of neurons
is altered by
experience
39% of the inferotemporal
neurons gave a maximum
response to some of the
stimuli during training

In comparison with 9% for

naïve animals
 Are Faces Special?

Humans spend most of their time looking at faces

A model of the distributed
Human Neural system for
face perception
 Auditory Processing

• Music Perception Relies on relation

between elements

1. Loudness: magnitude of a sensation as judged by a

given person

2. Timbre: distinctive characteristic of a sound

3. Pitch: position of a sound in a musical scale as judged

by the listener [Related to frequency - the vibration rate
of a sound]
 Auditory Processing

• Music Perception
– Patients with temporal lobe injuries illustrate
that the left temporal lobe plays a major
role in temporal grouping for rhythm,
whereas the right hemisphere plays a role
in meter (beat)
– Right temporal lobe special function in
extracting pitch from sound regardless if the
sound is speech or music
• Prosody - “tone of voice” or pitch in speech
 Auditory Processing

Music Perception
Musicians have a larger volume of gray and white matter in Heschl’s gyrus
Fundamental pitch listener’s -
leftward asymmetry

Spectral-pitch listeners -
rightward asymmetry
 Symptoms of Temporal-Lobe Lesions

• Auditory Disturbance
• Disorders of Music Perception
• Impaired organization and categorization
• Inability to use contextual information
• Memory problems
• Altered personality and affective behaviour
• Altered sexual behaviour
 Imaging Auditory Hallucinations

•Auditory hallucinations
most common symptom

•Verbal hallucinations
activate primary auditory
cortex & Broca’s area

Schizophrenia
Disorders of Visual Perception

Patients with temporal

lobe damage are
impaired at object
recognition & complex
pattern recognition
 Refer to ‘notes’ section of slide

Complex-Figure Test Mooney Closure Test

Meier & French Test Hidden-Figures Test
 Using Contextual Information

Stimuli can be interpreted in different ways depending on context

 Memory
Astrocytoma in the left temporal lobe

Wechsler Memory Scale

“Ann Thompson of South Boston, employed as a scrub
woman in an office building, was held up on State Street
the night before and robbed of $15. She had four children,
the rent was due and they had not eaten for two days. The
officers, touched by the woman’s story, made up a purse
for her.”

RECALL:
“A woman was robbed and went to the police station where
they made her a new purse. She had some children too.”

Mr. B
Tumour of the right temporal lobe.

Surgery

After surgery, left with visual memory

deficit.

Asked to draw various geometric

designs after seeing them for 10
seconds.

Difficulty with immediate recall.

Little recall after 10 minutes.

Ms. C
 Affect and Personality

• Stimulation of anterior and medial temporal cortex

produces feelings of fear

• Temporal lobe personality

– Personality that overemphasizes trivial and petty
details of life
– Pedantic speech: overly concerned about minute
details
 Affect and Personality

• Stimulation of anterior and medial temporal cortex

produces feelings of fear

• Temporal lobe personality

– Personality that overemphasizes trivial and petty
details of life
– Pedantic speech
– Egocentricity
– Perseveration
– Paranoia
– Preoccupation with religion
– Proneness to aggression