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Dissertation
Differentiating memory lateralization in temporal lobectomy patients: comparison of the material-specific and familiarity-novelty hypotheses
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
2004
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00008058
Abstract
According to the material-specific hypothesis, the memory functions of the right and left medial temporal lobe (MTL) differ by types of material; the left MTL processes verbal information and the right MTL processes visual-spatial information. The familiarity-novelty hypothesis postulates that the familiarity of the material determines memory lateralization, such that the left MTL processes familiar information and the right MTL processes unfamiliar information. This study attempted to elucidate the lateralization of memory functions by testing recognition memory in 15 right and 13 left post-anterior temporal lobectomy patients and 15 normal controls using a completely crossed design of stimuli type: Unfamiliar faces, familiar/unnameable faces, real words, and pseudowords. Application of the material-specific hypothesis results in a prediction that right temporal lobectomy patients (RTL) will perform significantly worse than left anterior temporal lobectomy (LTL) patients on tasks of nonverbal face memory and the LTL patients will perform worse than the RTL on tasks of word memory. If the familiarity hypothesis is correct then RTL patients will perform worse than LTL patients on tasks of familiar stimuli memory and LTL patients will perform worse than RTL patients on tasks of unfamiliar stimuli memory. Consistent with the material-specific hypothesis, the RTL group performed worse on face memory tests and there was a trend disadvantage of the LTL group to perform worse on the word memory tests. When the variances of word knowledge and perceptual ability were controlled, these results became insignificant.
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Details
- Title
- Differentiating memory lateralization in temporal lobectomy patients
- Creators
- Dawn M. Schiehser
- Contributors
- J. Michael Williams (Advisor) - Drexel University, Drexel University (1970-)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- xi, 109 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- College of Arts and Sciences; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991021888988104721