Supraspan learning in patients with unilateral anterior temporal lobe resections

The present data addresses the role of the anterior temporal lobe in verbal and visual supraspan learning. Patient subjects had either a left or right standardized temporal lobe resection, which involved extensive removal of mesial temporal lobe structures. Neither patient group showed marked deficits on either the verbal or visual supraspan learning tasks, although an unexpected performance variation occurred. A tendency to mild depression of performance on the verbal supraspan learning task was observed among right temporal-lobectomy patients. Nevertheless, the overall results indicate that anterior temporal lobe structures are not independently critical for supraspan learning. These findings are consistent with a previous report that posterior brain regions are involved in mediating such tasks.