Lesions in the temporal lobe can stimulate or inhibit the functions mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The temporal lobe can be damaged by infection, trauma, ischaemia, and neoplasia. Such responses include largely involuntary ones, mediated by the autonomic and somatic motor systems, and mental functions, especially those called feelings or emotions, that motivate decision and voluntary actions. The nearby amygdala generates responses to perceived sensory stimuli that have been partly analyzed elsewhere in the brain. The medial side of the temporal lobe includes regions concerned with olfaction (the uncus and nearby cortex) and semantic memory (the hippocampal formation). In addition to cortex, the temporal lobe contains white matter, part of the lateral ventricle, the tail of the caudate nucleus, the stria terminalis, the hippocampal formation, and the amygdala. Temporal cortex includes areas involved with the auditory, olfactory, vestibular, and visual senses, and in the perception of spoken and written language. ДЄpproximately 17% of the volume of the human cerebral cortex, 16% in the right and 17% in the left hemisphere, forms the surfaces of the temporal lobes. A true temporal lobe, delineated above (dorsally) by a lateral sulcus (sylvian fissure), and containing an extension of the lateral ventricle, occurs only in primates and is largest in man. No attempt is made to provide references for the original descriptions of gross anatomical structures, but synonyms are mentioned to accommodate the differences in terminology used by anatomists, pathologists, and radiologists in textbooks and other literature.Д«ulges on the lateral sides of the forebrain in insectivores (considered ancestral to primates) are anatomically related to the temporal bone and contain cortical areas and other structures such as the hippocampus and amygdala that are medially located in the temporal lobes of the human brain. A few historical references are included to remind readers that many of the вЂњdiscoveriesвЂќ made with modern imaging techniques simply confirm what has been known about the temporal lobe for many years. References are provided for further reading, especially in areas where there is clinical interest or controversy or where anatomical details are not easily found in ordinary textbooks of neuroanatomy. Some physiological and pathological correlates are mentioned, but this is primarily an anatomical account.

In this paper, I attempt to explain the positions of the parts of the normal human temporal lobe in relation to one another and to nearby structures. This article also reviews arterial supply, venous drainage, and anatomical relations of the temporal lobe to adjacent intracranial and tympanic structures. The temporal lobe contains much subcortical white matter, with such named bundles as the anterior commissure, arcuate fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus and uncinate fasciculus, and Meyer's loop of the geniculocalcarine tract. Its major projections are to the septal area and prefrontal cortex, mediating emotional responses to sensory stimuli. The amygdala receives input from the olfactory bulb and from association cortex for other modalities of sensation. The amygdala comprises several nuclei on the medial aspect of the temporal lobe, mostly anterior the hippocampus and indenting the tip of the temporal horn. The choroid fissure, alongside the fimbria, separates the temporal lobe from the optic tract, hypothalamus and midbrain. The largest efferent projection of the subiculum and hippocampus is through the fornix to the hypothalamus.

Association fibres connect all parts of the cerebral cortex with the parahippocampal gyrus and subiculum, which in turn project to the dentate gyrus. The hippocampus is an inrolled gyrus that bulges into the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle. The hippocampal formation, on the medial side of the lobe, includes the parahippocampal gyrus, subiculum, hippocampus, dentate gyrus, and associated white matter, notably the fimbria, whose fibres continue into the fornix. Only primates have temporal lobes, which are largest in man, accommodating 17% of the cerebral cortex and including areas with auditory, olfactory, vestibular, visual and linguistic functions.

Hippocampus anatomy landmarks