Processing of Words and Faces by Patients with Left and Right Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Abstract

Tests of word and face processing were given to patients with complex partial epilepsy focussed on the left or right temporal lobe, and to non-epileptic control subjects. The left TLE group showed the greatest impairment on object naming and on reading tests, but the right TLE group also showed a lesser impairment relative to the normal control subjects on both tests. The right TLE group was selectively impaired on distinguishing famous from non-famous faces while the left TLE group was impaired at naming famous faces they had successfully recognized as familiar. There was no significant difference between the three groups on recognition memory for words. The implications of the results for theories of the role of the temporal lobes in word and face processing, and the possible neural mechanisms responsible for the deficits in TLE patients, are discussed.

The neuropsychological and emotional consequences of living with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy: implications for clinical management

“…In support of our findings, some researchers have reported patients with left TLE to be impaired on verbal memory tasks 10,37,38 . Contrary to our finding of language impairment in left temporal groups, Hamberger and Tammy 39 found no difference in scores on a visual naming task for left and right temporal groups, but other researchers report results in line with our findings 11,40 .…”

“…In addition to the psychological difficulties associated with medically intractable seizures, there are also significant neuropsychological sequelae including: intellectual decline, memory deficits, language impairment, reduced speed of information processing, compromised levels of attention and concentration and higher executive functioning. Results from studies of people with a well-lateralised temporal lobe seizure focus 10,11 and those who have undergone surgical resection of the temporal lobes 12 appear to support consistently the generally held view in neuropsychology of lateralised material-specific memory deficits: damage to the left temporal lobe (LTL) leads to difficulties in remembering verbally-presented information, whereas right temporal lobe (RTL) damage adversely affects memory for non-verbal (usually visuospatial) material 13 .…”

Naming and recognizing famous faces in temporal lobe epilepsy

“…The deficit in retrieving proper names of familiar people worsened significantly after surgical resection of the anterior left temporal lobe, consistent with the idea that this cortical region plays a special role in the retrieval of names for unique objects and faces. 46,50 One study reported that patients with RTLE were impaired in recognizing whether a pictured face was of a famous person and identifying the person's occupation from his or her face. Furthermore, there was a relatively strong correlation between impaired retrieval of proper names of famous people and difficulties naming other familiar objects, as well as impaired memory for newly presented words.…”

The acquisition of face and person identity information following anterior temporal lobectomy

“…For example, differential patterns of familiar face recognition and identification occur in patients with left or right temporal lobe damage. Patients with focal left temporal lobe damage have a specific impairment at the stage of name retrieval with intact face recognition and retrieval of (semantic) biographical knowledge, whereas right temporal lobe damage is associated with impairment in all three component stages; recognition, identification, and naming (Ellis et al, 1991;Seidenberg et al, 2002;Viskontas et al, 2002).…”

“…Data is provided for the acquisition of the facebiographical vignettes over multiple trial presentations, and performance for face recognition and face identification processes are examined. Although, different patterns of deficits following right or left temporal lobe lesions are evident in the recognition and identification of previously familiar faces (Ellis et al, 1991;Seidenberg et al, 2002), there has been limited direct examination of the contrasting effect of lateralized temporal lobe lesions on the acquisition and retention of new face-biographical vignette pairings. Specific questions to be addressed in this study include examination of the effect of lateralized temporal lobe damage on (1) learning of a face-biographical vignette, (2) the acquisition of distinct elements (face, person name, occupation, and city name) of a face-biographical vignette, and (3) the relationship between face-biographical vignette learning and performance on standard clinical measures of face matching, object naming, and anterograde verbal and visual memory.…”