BRAIN FUNCTIONS

Hippocampus

• 🧠 Function: Episodic memory formation, consolidation, and recall.

• ✅ Status: Well-established. Supported by classic cases (e.g., HM), imaging studies, and lesion research.

Perirhinal Cortex

• 🧠 Function: Supports familiarity-based recognition memory (as opposed to recollection).

• ⚠ Status: Theoretical/Debated. Supported by Aggleton & Brown’s (1999) model; some dispute on how much it can compensate for hippocampal damage.

Dorsomedial Thalamus

• 🧠 Function: Memory encoding and retrieval (linked with hippocampus).

• ⚠ Status: Partially established. Based on rare cases like N.A. and some Korsakoff’s evidence; the degree of involvement remains under investigation.

Mammillary Bodies

• 🧠 Function: Memory processing (especially consolidation), implicated in Korsakoff's syndrome.

• ✅ Status: Well-established. Consistently found damaged in cases of thiamine deficiency.

Anterior Temporal Lobes (ATL)

• 🧠 Function: Acts as a semantic hub, integrating knowledge from various modalities.

• ⚠ Status: Theoretical but increasingly supported (Hub-and-Spoke model by Patterson et al., 2007; Lambon Ralph et al., 2010). Still some debate around modality interaction.

Posterior Fusiform Gyrus

• 🧠 Function: Visual object recognition, form and color processing.

• ✅ Status: Well-established via fMRI and lesion studies.

Superior Temporal Gyrus

• 🧠 Function: Auditory processing and speech comprehension.

• ✅ Status: Well-established. Mapped via neuroimaging and lesion studies (e.g., in aphasia).

Ventromedial Occipitotemporal Cortex

• 🧠 Function: Conscious identity recognition (Ventral stream).

• ⚠ Status: Partially established. Used in double dissociation models like Bauer’s for Capgras vs. Prosopagnosia.

Superior Temporal Sulcus

• 🧠 Function: Emotional tagging of faces (Dorsal route in face recognition).

• ⚠ Status: Theoretical. Hypothesized in Capgras delusion, supported by physiological data (SCR).

Anterior Ventral and Medial Temporal Lobes

• 🧠 Function: Storage of category-specific concepts (e.g., animals, tools).

• ⚠ Status: Contentious. Some data supports this (e.g., HSE, semantic dementia), but debate exists between domain-specific vs. feature-based models.

Fusiform Face Area (FFA)

📍 Location: Right fusiform gyrus, ventral temporal cortex
🧩 Function: Specialized for holistic/configural face recognition.
✅ Status: Well-established

Occipital Face Area (OFA)

📍 Location: Inferior occipital gyrus
🧩 Function: Early-stage facial feature processing (eyes, nose, mouth).
✅ Status: Well-established

Posterior Left Hemisphere

📍 Location: Includes posterior fusiform and lateral occipital regions
🧩 Function: May support featural processing in face recognition when FFA is impaired.
⚠ Status: Theoretical/Debated

Ventral Temporal Cortex

📍 Location: Underside of temporal lobe, includes FFA
🧩 Function: Processes visual object categories; may contain specialized modules (e.g., faces, words).
⚠ Status: Partially established, debated between domain-specific vs. distributed models