Video Transcript
A patient underwent brain surgery
in an attempt to treat their epilepsy. After the surgery, the patient
suffered from hearing defects and struggled to comprehend what other people were
saying. What part of the brain was most
likely damaged by this surgery? (A) The parietal lobe, (B) the
frontal lobe, (C) the occipital lobe, (D) the cerebellum, (E) the temporal lobe.
In order to answer our question
correctly, we don’t need to know what epilepsy is. Instead, all we need to do is
recall the brain structures that are responsible for hearing and language
comprehension. So, let’s review each of our answer
choices in order to try and arrive at the correct one.
The parietal lobe is especially
important in sensory integration, such as the integration of temperature, pain, and
touch. But the parietal lobe does not
include the brain areas used for hearing and language comprehension. So, we can eliminate the parietal
lobe as a possible answer choice.
The frontal lobe is important for
executive functioning, reasoning, cognition, and voluntary movement. Damage to your frontal lobe can
have extensive effects on your personality and behavior, but not hearing and speech
comprehension. Thus, this answer choice is also
incorrect.
The occipital lobe is mostly
responsible for vision. The visual cortex in the occipital
lobe processes information from the eyes and then interprets the information into
the images that create our perception of the world. Other parts of the occipital lobe
process visual images of language and interpret this imagery. So, while the occipital lobe is
extremely useful in reading comprehension, it does not have a role in hearing and
spoken language comprehension. Therefore, we can eliminate this
answer choice as well.
The cerebellum is largely
responsible for the coordination of our movements, posture, and balance. But since the cerebellum is mostly
responsible for our motor movements and maintaining our posture, damage to this area
would not affect hearing and speech comprehension.
The temporal lobe is located just
behind the ears. This can help us to remember that
this lobe is responsible for processing auditory information. It also contains regions
responsible for our comprehension of language and many aspects of our memory. So, damage to this lobe could
result in hearing defects and problems with comprehension, just like the issues in
the patient mentioned by the question.
After reviewing the function of
each of these brain areas, we are now able to answer the question. The part of the brain most likely
damaged by this surgery is the temporal lobe.
