Visual object naming in patients with small lesions centered at the left temporopolar region

Abstract

Naming is considered a left hemisphere function that operates according to a posterior-anterior specificity gradient, with more fine-grained information processed in most anterior regions of the temporal lobe (ATL), including the temporal pole (TP). Word finding difficulties are typically assessed using visual confrontation naming tasks, and have been associated with selective damage to ATL resulting from different aetiologies. Nonetheless, the role of the ATL and, more specifically, of the TP in the naming network is not completely established. Most of the accumulated evidence is based on studies on patients with extensive lesions, often bilateral. Furthermore, there is a considerable variability in the anatomical definition of ATL. To better understand the specific involvement of the left TP in visual object naming, we assessed a group of patients with an epileptogenic lesion centered at the TP, and compared their performance with that of a strictly matched control group. We also administered a battery of verbal and non-verbal semantic tasks that was used as a semantic memory baseline. Patients showed an impaired naming ability, manifesting in a certain degree of anomia and semantically related naming errors, which was influenced by concept familiarity. This pattern took place in a context of mild semantic dysfunction that was evident in different types and modalities of semantic tasks. Therefore, current findings demonstrate that a restricted lesion to the left TP can cause a significant deficit in object naming. Of importance, the observed semantic impairment was far from the devastating degradation observed in semantic dementia and other bilateral conditions.

Small temporal pole encephalocele: A hidden cause of “normal” MRI temporal lobe epilepsy

“…Third, patients with left STPE can exhibit a characteristic neuropsychological profile featured by significant deterioration of semantic abilities without impairment of the visual perceptual system. [28][29][30] This finding was observed at a group level, but also when individual patient performance was considered. This profile is in agreement with an influential model of semantic memory for which neocortical regions in the anterior and inferior portions of the temporal lobe are critical for conceptual knowledge.…”

Disrupted Brain Network Efficiency and Decreased Functional Connectivity in Multi-sensory Modality Regions in Male Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder

“…Olivetti Belardinelli et al (2009) have revealed that the level of imagery vividness in different sensory modalities is related to differences of BOLD activity in modality-specific cortices. Activation of several brain regions in different sensory modalities has been identified in some research articles, such as occipital (visual), superior temporal gyrus (auditory), post-central gyrus (somatic), anterior insula (gustatory and olfactory), fusiform gyrus (FFG; visual and semantic), and OFC (olfactory and visual; Olivetti Belardinelli et al, 2009; Li et al, 2010; Campo et al, 2016; Harris et al, 2016; Kaufman et al, 2016; Zhang et al, 2018). Previous studies have indicated that patients with AUD demonstrate significant GM reductions in these multi-sensory modality regions (superior, middle frontal gyrus, occipital cortex, superior temporal gyrus, and insula; Senatorov et al, 2015; Yang et al, 2016).…”

Words fail: Lesion‐symptom mapping of errors of omission in post‐stroke aphasia

“…Converging evidence from functional neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies has identified bilateral ATL as a critical 'hub' for semantic cognition (Lambon Ralph et al, 2017;Mummery et al, 2000;Nestor et al, 2006;Patterson, Nestor, & Rogers, 2007), with the left ATL being particularly important for verbal semantic processing, including picture naming (Butler et al, 2009;Campo et al, 2016;Lambon Ralph et al, 2001;Mesulam et al, 2013;. Damage to the left ATL may weaken either the activation of the semantic features (Lambon Ralph et al, 2001;Ueno et al, 2011) or the mapping (connections) from semantic features to words (Dell et al, 2004(Dell et al, , 2013Schwartz et al, 2006).…”

“…In addition to behavioural and computational investigations that have revealed the cognitive basis of these common commission error types, lesion‐symptom mapping studies have revealed their neural correlates. Semantic errors in picture naming are strongly associated with damage to the anterior temporal lobe (Butler, Brambati, Miller, & Gorno‐Tempini, ; Campo et al ., ; Damasio, Tranel, Grabowski, Adolphs, & Damasio, ; Lambon Ralph, McClelland, Patterson, Galton, & Hodges, ; Mesulam et al ., , ; Mirman, Zhang, Wang, Coslett, & Schwartz, ; Schwartz et al ., ; Walker et al ., ), presumably because this region is an important hub for semantic cognition (Lambon Ralph, Jefferies, Patterson, & Rogers, ). In contrast, phonological errors in word production are associated with damage to posterior superior temporal and inferior parieto‐frontal regions (Buchsbaum et al ., ; Fridriksson et al ., ; Mirman, Chen, et al ., ; Mirman, Zhang, et al ., ; Schwartz, Faseyitan, Kim, & Coslett, ).…”