The role of the temporal poles in proper naming and people recognition: a tDCS study.

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Event Abstract Back to Event The role of the temporal poles in proper naming and people recognition: a tDCS study. Alberto Pisoni1*, Leonor J. Romero Lauro1 and Costanza Papagno1 1 Università degli studi di Milano Bicocca, Psychology, Italy Even if extensively studied, the neural correlates of people’s recognition and naming are still a matter of debate. While neuropsychological reports on single cases show a greater role of the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in proper naming and of the right one in people’s identification, reviews are less consistent (Gainotti et al., 2007). Moreover, it is still controversial whether the familiarity feeling, personal semantics access and proper names retrieval depend on amodal processes, relying on supra-modal hubs, or follows modality-dependent paths (Gainotti et al., 2007; Patterson et al., 2007; Ralph and Patterson, 2008). To disentangle these issues, we tested, in a parallel group design, healthy subjects performance in famous people recognition and naming after anodal tDCS, over the left or right ATL or after a placebo stimulation condition. tDCS a non-invasive brain stimulation technique, which is supposed to enhance spontaneous cortical activity when delivered with the anodal polarity. In the famous people recognition task, subjects were presented with visual (face recognition) or auditory (voice recognition) stimuli, belonging either to famous or non-famous persons. Participants had first to indicate whether it was a famous person (familiarity test); then, if the stimulus was recognized as famous, participants had to provide some personal semantic information; finally, subjects had to produce the name of the famous person. We expected left anodal tDCS to affect performance in proper naming only and, in turn, right ATL simulation to modulate familiarity and personal semantics access. Data on 16 participants for both right ATL and sham tDCS groups are available, while six subjects have been collected up to now for left ATL tDCS. Concerning famous faces recognition, mixed effects models confirmed that familiarity resulted affected by stimulation (Stimulation*Celebrity: χ2(2)=20.0739; p<.001), with right tDCS boosting the recognition of non-famous faces as compared to sham stimulation (98.5% vs 91.1%; p=.001). RTs for non-famous faces were faster in the right compared to sham tDCS (F(2,1387)=4.15; p=.016; right-tDCS:1716 ms; sham-tDCS:2122ms; p=.004). This result is in line with neuropsychological findings reporting right ATL lesioned patients having problems with recognizing as non-famous unknown people. Similarly, personal semantics resulted enhanced after right anodal ATL tDCS (χ2(2)=5.8; p=.05). This group was more accurate (96.6%) in retrieving information about famous persons as compared to the sham (93.6; p=.04) and marginally to the left tDCS (92.4%; p=.056) groups. Finally, proper naming was boosted by left ATL tDCS (χ2(2)= 7.5; p=.02), being this group better (95.2%) with respect to both the right (81.1%; p=.009) and the sham (80.8; p=.008) tDCS groups. No significant effect of tDCS has been highlighted for famous voices recognition. Our data support a key role of the right ATL in famous people recognition and access to personal semantics, while the left ATL seems crucial for proper naming. References Gainotti, G. (2007). Different patterns of famous people recognition disorders in patients with right and left anterior temporal lesions: A systematic review. Neuropsychologia, 45(8), 1591-1607. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.12.013 Patterson, K., Nestor, P. J., & Rogers, T. T. (2007). Where do you know what you know? The representation of semantic knowledge in the human brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience Nat Rev Neurosci, 8(12), 976-987. doi:10.1038/nrn2277 Ralph, M. A., & Patterson, K. (2008). Generalization and Differentiation in Semantic Memory: Insights from Semantic Dementia. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1124(1), 61-76. doi:10.1196/annals.1440.006 Keywords: tDCS, proper naming, Personal semantic memory, temporal poles, lateralization Conference: 54th Annual Academy of Aphasia Meeting, Llandudno, United Kingdom, 16 Oct - 18 Oct, 2016. Presentation Type: Poster Sessions Topic: Academy of Aphasia Citation: Pisoni A, Romero Lauro LJ and Papagno C (2016). The role of the temporal poles in proper naming and people recognition: a tDCS study.. Front. Psychol. Conference Abstract: 54th Annual Academy of Aphasia Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.fpsyg.2016.68.00076 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 29 Apr 2016; Published Online: 15 Aug 2016. * Correspondence: Dr. Alberto Pisoni, Università degli studi di Milano Bicocca, Psychology, Milano, 20126, Italy, alberto.pisoni@unimib.it Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Alberto Pisoni Leonor J Romero Lauro Costanza Papagno Google Alberto Pisoni Leonor J Romero Lauro Costanza Papagno Google Scholar Alberto Pisoni Leonor J Romero Lauro Costanza Papagno PubMed Alberto Pisoni Leonor J Romero Lauro Costanza Papagno Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.