What is the purpose of the temporal lobe? I suffer from temporal lobe epilepsy, hippocampal sclerosic. I was wondering what it may cause problems with my right temporal lobe removed?
Function
The superior temporal gyrus includes a zone (within the Sylvian fissure) where auditory signals from the cochlea (relayed by several subcortical nuclei) first reach the cerebral cortex. This part of the cortex (primary auditory cortex) is involved in the hearing. adjacent areas in the upper posterior and lateral parts of the temporal lobes are involved in auditory processing of high level. In humans this includes speech, for which the left temporal lobe in particular seems to be specialized. Wernicke's area from the region between the temporal and parietal lobes play a key role (in tandem with Broca's area, which is in the frontal lobe). The left temporal lobe functions are not limited to low-level perception but extend to comprehension, naming, verbal memory and the functions of other languages.
The underside (ventral) part of the superior temporal gyrus appear to be involved in visual processing of high complex stimuli such as faces (fusiform gyrus) and scenes (parahippocampal gyrus). anterior parts of the ventral stream for visual processing are involved in object perception and recognition.
The medial temporal lobe (near the sagittal plane that divides left and right cerebral hemispheres) are suspected to be involved in episodic / declarative memory. At the bottom of the medial temporal lobe, the hippocampus seems to be particularly important for memory function, and they also appear to play a role in the control of spatial behavior
Posted on February 10, 2010.
