Recognition and identification of famous faces in patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy

We examined the performance of 21 patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and hippocampal damage (10 lefts, and 11 rights) and 10 age-matched controls on the recognition and identification (name and occupation) of well-known faces. Famous face stimuli were selected from four time perio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuropsychologia 2002, Vol.40 (4), p.446-456
Main Authors: Seidenberg, Michael, Griffith, Randall, Sabsevitz, David, Moran, Maria, Haltiner, Alan, Bell, Brian, Swanson, Sara, Hammeke, Thomas, Hermann, Bruce
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Biological and medical sciences
Case-Control Studies
Dominance, Cerebral
Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - pathology
Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - psychology
Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - surgery
Face
Famous faces
Female
Hippocampus
Hippocampus - pathology
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Mental Recall
Middle Aged
Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology
Person-identity
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Recognition (Psychology)
Temporal lobe epilepsy
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Summary:We examined the performance of 21 patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and hippocampal damage (10 lefts, and 11 rights) and 10 age-matched controls on the recognition and identification (name and occupation) of well-known faces. Famous face stimuli were selected from four time periods; 1970s, 1980s, 1990–1994, and 1995–1996. Differential patterns of performance were observed for the left and right TLE group across distinct face processing components. The left TLE group showed a selective impairment in naming famous faces while they performed similar to the controls in face recognition and semantic identification (i.e. occupation). In contrast, the right TLE group was impaired across all components of face memory; face recognition, semantic identification, and face naming. Face naming impairment in the left TLE group was characterized by a temporal gradient with better naming performance for famous faces from more distant time periods. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of the temporal lobe system for the acquisition, retention, and retrieval of face semantic networks, and the differential effects of lateralized temporal lobe lesions in this process.
ISSN:0028-3932
1873-3514
DOI:10.1016/S0028-3932(01)00096-3