Temporal lobe: the area of ​​affectivity and memory

Communicate effectively. Read and write. Remember the kiss our partner gave us this morning. Experience sexual desire. Strive to take care of our emotional stability. Know what a book or an elevator is for. Get excited when we watch a movie. All and many other processes are regulated by a very specific area: the temporal lobe.

Heraclitus said that nothing in nature is stable, that everything changes and everything flows, including the tissues of our body. However, there is an aspect that characterizes each of us: We have the feeling that we are always the same. This fixed and unchanging internal perception of the “I” is something that characterizes most of us.

However, not only the cells in our tissues are renewed and change every so often. The brain also does the same with each of our mental processes, with each learning, with each experience, sensation and emotion.

Thus, and as striking as it may seem to us, The temporal lobe is precisely that area of ​​our brain that most favors our changes.because thanks to it we learn, remember, motivate ourselves, process information, establish emotional bonds in order to adapt much better to our environment.

On the other hand, great experts on the subject such as Francisco J. Rubia, doctor of Medicine from the University of Düsseldorf and author of books such as The brain deceives us, what do you know about your brain? o The spiritual brain, tells us that The lesions and disorders associated with the temporal lobe are the strangest and most striking known.

The feeling of having a “double”, for example, that classic image that Edgar Allan Poe showed us in “William Wilson” It is defined by autoscopy or illusion or hallucination of the self, a disorder caused by an alteration in this area. The topic couldn’t be more interesting.

Where is the temporal lobe?

To locate the temporal lobe we must visualize that area contained at the level of the ears. It is separated from the parietal lobe by the Sylvian fissure and is for many biologists one of the newest parts of the brain; in fact, it only appears in vertebrates.

Likewise, and like all other regions of the brain, it is not an anatomically isolated structure. It works in conjunction with the other regions of the brain but, yes, we could say that it is a very dynamic, sensitive structure and in constant interaction with the senses and our environment.

In fact, and this fact is interesting, we are looking at the brain lobe that has the most connections with the limbic system. Therefore, It has a great responsibility in a large number of processes related to our emotions and memory.

Areas and functions of the temporal lobe

The temporal lobe, as with all brain structures, has a right and a left hemisphere. Likewise, it has various structures with multiple interconnections that favor a certain type of functions. The best known and studied are the following:

Auditory perceptionMemorySpeechLanguage comprehensionEmotional responsesVisual perceptionFacial recognition.

However, let’s see in detail where each of these processes are carried out.

auditory cortex

Perceive sounds, understand where they come from, identify musical sounds, communicate effectively and coherently… All of these processes are mediated by the auditory cortex of the temporal lobe, a key area for human communication.

visual cortex

The visual cortex of the temporal lobe is involved in our ability to recognize objects, faces, as well as any visual stimulus. Any alteration to this structure would undoubtedly have serious effects. We could not identify anything that surrounds us.

Wernike area

Wernike’s area is just inside the auditory cortex and performs an essential function: understanding spoken language. It should be noted, however, that this structure only facilitates understanding. Being able to communicate after having decoded a message occurs in Broca’s area.

angular rotation

Reading and writing, decoding symbols, understanding them, linking graphemes with phonemes… All of these fine-tuned and exquisite processes require a sophisticated ability to associate visual information with auditory information, something that occurs precisely in this area: the angular gyrus.

Supramarginal gyrus

Touch an object and anticipate what we are going to feel or recognize what it is just from the sensations it produces. Caressing someone and experiencing that accumulation of valuable and pleasant sensations… These types of experiences are mediated by a structure as small as it is powerful: the supramarginal gyrus.

Parieto-temporo-occipital association area

The parieto-temporal-occipital association area involves the temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes. This area of ​​our brain is not yet known in depth but so far we know that it is related to the following processes:

Spatial perception. Directed attention. Visual-motor integration. Being able to position ourselves and orient our body when seeing a visual stimulus when listening to a sound. It is also related to memory processes (such as recognizing loved ones)

Association area with the limbic system

This part of the temporal lobe is one of the most interesting as well as decisive in many of our social processes. These would be some tasks that it carries out:

Relate people to emotional experiences.It facilitates motivation. It helps to add an emotional component to everything we see. It regulates emotions.It favors and regulates sexual behavior at the same time.Facilitates learning. Promotes personality development.

Alterations and disorders in the temporal lobe

As we have pointed out, biologists and neurologists think that the temporal lobe is one of the newest structures in our brain. It is related to communication, reading, writing…

And if we add to this that link with that most primitive but relevant part of our behavior such as the limbic system, we will undoubtedly understand its great significance as well as the large number of alterations that brain damage or an alteration in this area can entail.

For example, one of the most recent studies, carried out by the Brain Metabolism Unit of the MRC Royal Hospital in Edinburgh, tells us that People with major depression have various alterations in the temporal lobe.

Let’s see, however, what other implications suffering from a problem in this brain area has:

Cortical deafness: the person receives auditory information, but the brain cannot understand it.HemiacusisLanguage disorders such as aphasias.Hemineglect: orientation problems and inability to react to stimuli.Anterograde amnesia, problems remembering new learning and establishing new experiences.Klüver-Bucy syndrome: common in Alzheimer’s, it is characterized by passivity, attention problems and serious problems in emotional regulation. Capgras syndrome: it is a delusional disorder where the patient thinks that a close friend or family member has been replaced.

To conclude, the temporal lobe carries out, as we can see, infinite tasks. Those that allow us to be who we are, valid people who adapt to their environment and who also carry out those most distinguished functions of our species: communication, writing and reading.

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