Changes in description naming for common and proper nouns after left anterior temporal lobectomy

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Sara J. Swanson, Medical College of Wisconsin; Lisa L. Conant, Medical College of Wisconsin; Colin J. Humphries, Medical College of Wisconsin; Megan LeDoux, Medical College of Wisconsin; Manoj Raghavan, Medical College of Wisconsin; Wade M. Mueller, Medical College of Wisconsin; Linda Allen, Medical College of Wisconsin; William A. Gross, Medical College of Wisconsin; Christopher T. Anderson, Medical College of Wisconsin; Chad E. Carlson, Medical College of Wisconsin; Robyn M. Busch, Cleveland Clinic; Mark Lowe, Cleveland Clinic; Madalina E. Tivarus, University of Rochester; Daniel Drane, Emory University; David Loring, Emory University; Monica Jacobs, Vanderbilt University; Victoria L. Morgan, Vanderbilt University; Jerzy Szaflarski, University of Alabama Birmingham; Leonardo Bonilha, Emory University; Susan Bookheimer, University of California Los Angeles; Thomas Grabowski, University of Washington; Vaishali Phatak, University of Washington; Jennifer Vannest, University of Cincinnati; Jeffrey R. Binder, Medical College of Wisconsin
• Language: English
• Date: 2020-05-01
• Publisher: Academic Press Inc. Elsevier Science
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2020.106912
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Epilepsy & Behavior
• Volume: 106
• Start Page: 106912
• End Page: 106912
• Grant/Funding Information: The FATES study was supported by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) grant R01 NS35929 (J. Binder, PI).
• Keywords: Unique; Names; Psychiatry; Decline; Proper noun naming; Auditory description naming; Neurosciences & Neurology; Networks; Temporal lobectomy; Language outcome; Science & Technology; Clinical Neurology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Language; Knowledge; Words; Epilepsy; Behavioral Sciences; Deficits; Category and uniqueness effects; Pole
• Research Categories: Biology, Neuroscience; Psychology, Cognitive; Psychology, Clinical; Health Sciences, Radiology

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown that surgical resection of the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) is associated with a decline in object naming ability (Hermann et al., 1999). In contrast, few studies have examined the effects of left ATL surgery on auditory description naming (ADN) or category-specific naming. Compared with object naming, which loads heavily on visual recognition processes, ADN provides a more specific measure of concept retrieval. The present study examined ADN declines in a large group of patients who were tested before and after left ATL surgery, using a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial manipulation of uniqueness (common vs. proper nouns), taxonomic category (living vs. nonliving things), and time (pre- vs. postsurgery). Significant declines occurred across all categories but were substantially larger for proper living (PL) concepts, i.e., famous individuals. The disproportionate decline in PL noun naming relative to other conditions is consistent with the notion that the left ATL is specialized not only for retrieval of unique entity concepts, but also plays a role in processing social concepts and person-specific features.