Temporal Lobe Diseases

The temporal lobes of the brain are on the sides of the head, over the ears. Their primary function is to organize sensory input, but they are involved in memory, personality, and executive tasks.

Disorders of the temporal lobes include frontotemporal dementia, (FTD, or Pick's Disease), temporal lobe epilepsy and damage from traumatic brain injury (TBI.) Symptoms of temporal lobe disorders involve changes in personality, social behavior and language skills.

Eight Principal Symptoms of Disorders of the Temporal Lobes

• Kolb and Wishaw identified eight principal symptoms of disorders of the brain's temporal lobes:

  - Disturbances in hearing.
  - Disturbances of attention paid to sounds or objects (selective attention).
  - Disorders of visual perception (not perceiving objects correctly).
  - Impaired ability to organize and categorize verbal material.
  - Disturbances comprehending language.
  - Long-term memory impairment.
  - Alterations of personality and affective behavior, and
  - Alterations in sexual behavior.

What is Frontotemporal Dementia?

• Alzheimer's disease is primarily a disorder of the frontal lobes, and thus the primary symptom is memory impairment. Temporal lobe dementia causes disabling changes in behavior. Memory may or may not be affected. Frontotemporal dementia is called Pick's Disease after the doctor who described it in 1892.

  Most cases of dementia that affect people over 70 are more consistent with Alzheimer's or other frontal lobe memory disorders. When people in their 50s or 60s are diagnosed with dementia, about half the cases are FTD and involve behavior, rather than memory-impairment dementia.

Signs and Symptoms of Frontotemporal Dementia

• According to the Mayo Clinic, common signs and symptoms of FTD include major, progressive changes in behavior and personality.

  - Increasingly inappropriate actions (disinhibition)
  - Euphoria
  - Lack of judgement and inhibition (impulsivity)
  - Apathy
  - Repetitive compulsive behavior
  - Decline in personal hygiene
  - Lack of awareness of thinking or behavior changes
  - Mental rigidity
  - Utilization behavior (Will pick up and use any object in vicinity, an abnormal form of fidgeting.)

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

• According to epilepsy.com, temporal lobe epilepsy is experienced very differently than the more frontal lobe epilepsy. Seizures can begin at any age and many times no known cause can be pinpointed.

  People with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) experience moments as a pronounced type of deja vu, where they feel that they have lived that moment a thousand times before, or where everything, including home and family are suddenly and undeniably strange.

  About three-quarters of people with TLE have simple partial seizures and remain fully conscious. In a minority of patients, the seizure spreads to the rest of the brain, resulting in a grand mal seizure.

  TLE is often successfully treated with anti-seizure medications.

Traumatic Brain Injury to the Temporal Lobes

• According to braininjury.com, in the United States, traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of death for people under the age of 45. TBI can be caused by a blunt force, a fall, concussive waves through the air (usually an explosion,) severe whiplash, toxins or infections.

  Symptoms of temporal lobe TBI include all of the above temporal lobe disorder symptoms, plus difficulty recognizing faces (prosopagnosia,) short-term memory loss and aggressive behavior. TBI also can cause epilepsy and progressive disorders such as pugilistic Parkinson's disease in the long term.