title: Left anterior lobectomy and category-specific naming.
abstract: Damasio and colleagues (1996) have proposed that the left anterior temporal region supports knowledge pertaining to living objects, whereas more posterior temporal regions play a critical role in naming nonliving things. Accordingly, one might expect that left-sided anterior temporal lobectomy should have a more profound effect on the naming of living as opposed to nonliving things. As part of a multicenter collaborative project, seventy-nine patients (all left-hemisphere speech dominant) were tested pre- and post-left-temporal lobectomy on a task that required naming of living and nonliving items equated for name frequency, familiarity, and visual complexity. Consistent with the proposals of Damasio et al. (1996), left temporal lobectomy impaired naming ability, particularly for living things. When individual outcomes were considered, twice as many patients showed a relative decline in naming living as opposed to nonliving things.
authors.affiliation: University of Victoria.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Strauss
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Semenza
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hermann
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Barr
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chelune
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lavdovsky
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Loring
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Perrine
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trenerry
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Westerveld
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011612:Psychosurgery / Q000379:methods*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology* / Q000601:surgery*