Temporal pole
Polus temporalis
The rounded front tip of the temporal lobe, resting in the middle cranial fossa behind the greater wing of the sphenoid bone.
At a glance
- English
- Temporal pole
- Latin (TA2)
- Polus temporalis
- System
- Brain and spinal cord
- Region
- Head
- Side
- Paired, left and right
About the temporal pole
Each cerebral hemisphere has three poles, the frontal, occipital and temporal, and the temporal pole is the most anterior point of the temporal lobe. It is a blunt, rounded prominence that projects forwards and slightly medially into the front of the middle cranial fossa, where it lies against the inner surface of the greater wing of the sphenoid. Above it the stem of the lateral sulcus separates it from the orbital surface of the frontal lobe.
The superior, middle and inferior temporal gyri all converge on the pole, so the parallel pattern of the lateral surface gathers into a single cap of cortex. On its medial side the pole lies just in front of the uncus and the amygdala. The cortex here corresponds broadly to Brodmann area 38, and it is linked to the orbital surface of the frontal lobe by the uncinate fasciculus, a hook-shaped bundle of white matter that curves around the stem of the lateral sulcus.
The temporal pole is regarded as a convergence zone where information from several senses meets emotional and memory systems. It contributes to semantic knowledge, especially of familiar people and objects, to naming, and to social and emotional processing. Its supply comes mainly from the anterior temporal branch of the middle cerebral artery, sometimes called the temporopolar artery, with venous drainage towards the sphenoparietal sinus and cavernous sinus.
Several conditions pick out this region. In semantic dementia, a form of frontotemporal dementia, the anterior temporal lobes waste and people lose the meaning of words and the ability to recognise faces. In head injuries the poles strike the sphenoid ridge and are a typical site of contusion. Seizures of mesial temporal origin often involve the pole, and it is removed as part of a standard anterior temporal lobectomy.
Function and supply
- Function
- Integrates sensory information with emotion and memory; involved in semantic knowledge, naming of familiar people and objects, and social and emotional processing.
- Blood supply
- Mainly the anterior temporal (temporopolar) branch of the middle cerebral artery.
Anthromica
See the temporal pole where it really sits, with every layer of the body around it.
- Every layer, one body. Peel from muscle to bone, nerve, vessel and organ, and turn it any way.
- English and Latin. Every structure named the way your exam names it.
- Quiz until it sticks. Short drills on the structures you keep missing.
Free to start. No card.
