Left anterior lobectomy and category-specific naming

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 th;lt left-sided anterior temporal lobectomy should have a more profound expect that 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 Damnsio 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. (C) 2000 Academic Press.