Temporal, Occipital, & Parietal Lobe Injuries
Temporal Lobe Injury
The temporal lobe is located behind the frontal lobe on both sides of the head above the ears. The functions of the temporal lobe include hearing, memory and speech. Due to their location, a temporal lobe injury is less common than injury to other parts of the brain.
Problems Caused by Temporal Lobe Injuries
Temporal lobe damage can cause eight primary symptoms:
- Disruption of auditory sensation and perception
- Disturbance of selective attention of auditory and visual input
- Disorders of visual perception
- Impaired organization and categorization of verbal material
- Disturbance of language comprehension
- Impaired long term memory
- Altered personality and affective behavior
- Altered sexual behavior
Additional Problems Caused by Temporal Lobe Injuries
- Temporal lobe injuries also can cause:
- Difficulty recognizing familiar faces (Prosopagnosia) (right sided injury)
- Language disturbances (Aphasias)
- Difficulty understanding spoken works (Wernicke’s Aphasia)
- Impaired memory for verbal material (left sided injury)
- Difficulty placing or recognizing words
- Hearing deficits
- Short term memory loss
- Decreased musical abilities (right sided injury)
- Impaired drawing ability (right sided injury)
- Inability to categorize objects (Categorization)
- Persistent talking (right sided injury)
- Increased aggressive behavior
- Hyperirritability and increased anger
Get the Help you Need
The attorneys at DeShaw Trial Lawyers are devoted to helping those who have suffered a brain injury due to someone’s negligence recover full and fair compensation. We build your traumatic brain injury case by aggressively investigating and prosecuting our cases, quickly assembling a team of knowledgeable expert witnesses and medical specialists to evaluate, provide medical care, and fully explain the injury and your future needs. Then, we present your case using cutting-edge, multimedia technology to clearly and thoroughly demonstrate the injury.
Occipital Lobe Injury
The occipital lobe (back of the head) is the primary area of the brain for processing visual information – visual reception and interpretation. It receives stimuli from the retina of the eyes and processes that information. The occipital lobe handles the relationship between past and present experiences. It is protected by the thickest part of the skull and its location in the back of the brain.
Occipital lobe injuries frequently cause:
- Visual deficits (Visual Field Cuts or Cortical Blindness)
- Difficulty locating objects in the environment
- Difficulty identifying colors (Color Agnosia)
- Hallucinations or illusions
- Inability to recognize words, i.e., word blindness
- Inability to recognize familiar faces or objects
- Difficulties in reading and writing
Parietal Lobe Injury
he parietal lobe (top of the head near the back of the brain) processes sensory input to form a single perception (cognition) and provides a spatial coordination to represent the world around us. The parietal lobe receives sensory information from skin, musculoskeletal system, taste buds and viscera. The main function of the parietal lobe is to detect various stimuli and differentiate the quality of the stimuli, such as intensity and textural differences. Injuries to the parietal lobe can cause:
- Inability to multi-task
- Inability to name an object (Anomia)
- Disorders of language (Aphasia)
- Inability to locate words for writing (Agraphia)
- Reading problems (Alexia)
- Difficulty writing and drawing objects
- Difficulty distinguishing right from left (right-left disorientation)
- Difficulty with mathematics (Dyscalculia or Acalculia)
- Lack of awareness of parts of body and surrounding space (Apraxia)
- Inability to focus visual attention
- Difficulty identifying the location and type of sensation, e.g., hot or cold
- Difficulties with hand-eye coordination
- Impairment of self-care skills
- Denial of deficits (Anosognosia)
