A unified neurocognitive model of the anterior temporal lobe contributions to semantics, language, social behaviour & face recognition

Abstract

AbstractThe anterior temporal lobes (ATL) have become a key brain region of interest in cognitive and clinical neuroscience. Contemporary explorations are founded upon neuropsychological investigations of semantic dementia (SD) that describe the patients’ selective semantic impairment and the variations in their language, behavioural and face recognition abilities. The purpose of this investigation was to generate a single unified model which captures the known cognitive-behavioural variations in SD, and integrates with the considerable database on healthy semantic function and other patient groups. A new analytical approach was able to capture the graded neuropsychological differences and map these to the patients’ distribution of frontotemporal atrophy. Multiple regression and principal component analyses confirmed that the degree of generalised semantic impairment was related to the patients’ total, bilateral ATL atrophy. Verbal production and word-finding abilities were related to total ATL atrophy as well as to the balance of left>right ATL atrophy. Behavioural apathy was found to relate positively to the degree of orbitofrontal atrophy and negatively to total temporal volumes. Disinhibited behaviour was related to right ATL and orbitofrontal atrophy and face recognition to right ATL volumes. Rather than positing mutually-exclusive sub-categories, the data-driven model repositions semantics, language, social behaviour and face recognition into a continuous frontotemporal neurocognitive space.