Abstract

Memory for people and their relationships, along with memory for social language and social behaviors, constitutes a specific type of semantic memory termed social knowledge. This review focuses on how and where social knowledge is represented in the brain. We propose that portions of the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) play a critical role in representing and retrieving social knowledge. This includes memory about people, their names and biographies and more abstract forms of social memory such as memory for traits and social concepts. This hypothesis is based on the convergence of several lines of research including anatomical findings, lesion evidence from both humans and non-human primates and neuroimaging evidence. Moreover, the ATL is closely interconnected with cortical nuclei of the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex via the uncinate fasciculus. We propose that this pattern of connectivity underlies the function of the ATL in encoding and storing emotionally tagged knowledge that is used to guide orbitofrontal-based decision processes.

Details

Title
Social cognition and the anterior temporal lobes: a review and theoretical framework
Author
Olson, Ingrid R 1 ; McCoy, David 1 ; Klobusicky, Elizabeth 1 ; Ross, Lars A 2 

 Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA, 2 The Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530, USA and 3 The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1225 Morris Park Avenue, New York, NY 10461, USA 
 Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA, 2 The Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530, USA and 3 The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1225 Morris Park Avenue, New York, NY 10461, USA; Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA, 2 The Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530, USA and 3 The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1225 Morris Park Avenue, New York, NY 10461, USA 
Pages
123-133
Publication year
2013
Publication date
Feb 2013
Publisher
Oxford University Press
ISSN
17495016
e-ISSN
17495024
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3171559552
Copyright
© The Author(s) (2012). Published by Oxford University Press. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.