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Updated: Feb 10, 2026

Anteromesial Temporal Lobectomy for Medically Intractable Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: An Operative Study
Published on: August 15, 2025
Attention improves memory by suppressing spiking-neuron activity in the human anterior temporal lobe
John H Wittig1, Anthony I Jang1, John B Cocjin1
1Surgical Neurology Branch, NINDS, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
None:
We identify a memory-specific attention mechanism in the human anterior temporal lobe, an area implicated in semantic processing and episodic memory formation. Spiking neuron activity is suppressed and becomes more reliable in preparation for verbal memory formation. Intracranial electroencephalography signals implicate this region as a source of executive control for attentional selection. Consistent with this interpretation, its surgical removal causes significant memory impairment for attended words relative to unattended words.
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