Furthermore, proper name retrieval was linked to an anterior temporal activity (neatly consistent with the findings of Damasio et al. [8]), while common noun retrieval engaged the occipital areas to a greater extent, probably because more visual sensory associations are linked to the names of highly imaginable objects (as opposed to the numerous abstract geographical names).
Overall, the role of the left temporal cortex in proper name retrieval (which, in our study, offered the strongest LORETA cortical generator in both the recognized persons minus things (BA21, 21) and the recognized minus unknown persons (BA20, 37) contrasts) seems to be a well established finding (e.g. [5], [30], [31], [32]).
Tasks have included verbal fluency (Iyer et al., 2005), picture naming (Fertonani, Rosini, Cotelli, Rossini, & Miniussi, 2010; Sparing, Dafotakis, Hesse, & Fink, 2007), proper name retrieval (Ross, McCoy, Wolk, Coslett, & Olson, 2010), nonword-picture matching (Fiori et al., 2010; Liuzzi et al., 2010) and a wide range of designs, tDCS protocols and sites of stimulation were used.
The objective of this study was to further explore proper name (PN) retrieval and conceptual knowledge in patients with left and right temporal lobe epilepsy (69 patients with LTLE and 62 patients with RTLE) using a refined assessment procedure.
Defective suppression mechanisms would thus lead to the dominance of certain prepotent behaviors (e.g., the optomotor response) and possibly learning defects when these prevent proper acquisition (or retrieval) of relevant events.
While previous studies on memory retrieval of proper vs. common nouns argued that common nouns are accessed faster than proper names [24] our data seem to suggest that, when memory retrieval is not required, semantic access is not necessarily more difficult for proper names.
To begin with, the retrieval of proper names is doubly dissociated from the retrieval of common nouns.
Concerning localization, both the study of lesions and neuroimaging research initially converged in identifying the left temporal pole as playing a crucial role in the retrieval of proper names (Damasio et al. 1996).
Overall, it seems that the memory retrieval of proper names is more demanding than that of common nouns.
