The anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) have become of interest to cognitive neuroscientists in recent years; they have been associated with various functions including (i) face recognition/person knowledge and (ii) general semantic memory. To generate a unified account of the ATLs, a new study by Rouse and colleagues tested the predictions from each literature and examined the effects of bilateral versus unilateral ATL damage on face recognition, person knowledge and semantic memory.

The authors recruited people with bilateral ATL damage from semantic dementia and people with unilateral left or right ATL damage from surgery to treat epilepsy. Whereas bilateral ATL damage caused severe impairments for both person knowledge and semantic memory, unilateral ATL damage caused subtle problems. Strikingly, this finding occurred despite patients having similar levels of total ATL damage. Face matching performance was preserved, but there was a diminished benefit of familiarity following bilateral ATL damage.

These findings provide important insights into the core function of the ATLs. The authors provide a neurocognitive framework whereby the ATLs underpin a resilient bilateral semantic system that interacts with perception to support face recognition.

The full paper can be read here: Matthew A Rouse, Siddharth Ramanan, Ajay D Halai, Angélique Volfart, Peter Garrard, Karalyn Patterson, James B Rowe, Matthew A Lambon Ralph, The impact of bilateral versus unilateral anterior temporal lobe damage on face recognition, person knowledge and semantic memory, Cerebral Cortex, Volume 34, Issue 8, August 2024, bhae336, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhae336