Neural basis of the retrieval of people's names: evidence from brain-damaged patients and fMRI

The aim of this study was to identify the neuroanatomical basis of the retrieval of people's names. Lesion data showed that patients with language-dominant temporal lobectomy had impairments in their ability to retrieve familiar and newly learned people's names, whereas patients with language-nondominant temporal lobectomy had difficulty retrieving newly learned people's names. Functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments revealed activations in the left temporal polar region during the retrieval of familiar and newly learned people's names, and in the right superior temporal and bilateral prefrontal cortices during the retrieval of newly learned information from face cues. These data provide new evidence that the left anterior temporal region is crucial for the retrieval of people's names irrespective of their familiarity and that the right superior temporal and bilateral prefrontal areas are crucial for the process of associating newly learned people's faces and names.