Definition and research guide
This page combines a MeSH definition, publication statistics and selected research abstracts. It is a starting point for reading the literature, not a medical textbook or a systematic evidence review.
Content available: 3 complete abstracts (531 words), 9 references. Full article text is not stored or reproduced here; follow the PMID, DOI or PMC links to read the original sources and their access terms.
Definition
Lower lateral part of the cerebral hemisphere responsible for auditory, olfactory, and semantic processing. It is located inferior to the lateral fissure and anterior to the occipital lobe.
Definition: NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) scope note (Public domain (U.S. National Library of Medicine); attribution requested). View the MeSH record.
Also known as: Lobe, Temporal; Temporal Lobes; Temporal Cortex; Cortex, Temporal; Temporal Cortices; Temporal Region; Region, Temporal; Temporal Regions.
Where it fits in the MeSH classification
- Broader topics
- Cerebral Cortex
- Narrower topics
- Auditory Cortex; Perirhinal Cortex; Uncinate Fasciculus; Wernicke Area
Related concepts
- Occipital Lobe
Research landscape
PubMed indexes 39,610 records tagged with the MeSH heading “Temporal Lobe” (counts retrieved 2026-10-29). 5,546 of them (14.0%) were published from 2020 onward, and the busiest period so far is through 1999 with 11,896 records.
Reviews account for 2,779 records (7.0%) and meta-analyses for 188. Randomized controlled trials number 454 (1.1%) as a share of all records on the topic. Randomized trials make up only a small share of this literature, so much of what is known comes from laboratory, observational or descriptive work.
Show the data
| Period | Records |
|---|---|
| through 1999 | 11,896 |
| 2000-2009 | 10,480 |
| 2010-2019 | 11,688 |
| 2020 onward | 5,546 |
Publication-type chart data
| Type | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 2,779 | 7.0% |
| Meta-analyses | 188 | 0.5% |
| Randomized controlled trials | 454 | 1.1% |
Method: PubMed query "Temporal Lobe"[MeSH Terms] with publication-type and date filters, retrieved 2026-10-29.
Reading the evidence in neuroscience
Neuroscience draws on tools with different strengths: cellular and animal work can manipulate circuits directly, while human imaging and electrophysiology observe the living brain at lower resolution. Small imaging studies are prone to false positives, and findings in animals do not always carry over to people. Clinical neurology and psychiatry rely on trials and cohort studies whose outcomes are often symptom scales. Check the species, the sample size, how the outcome was measured and whether results were replicated.
Evidence from open-access studies
These open-access studies come from PubMed’s best-match results for this heading (papers whose main topic it is), ranked here by citation count, with one recent addition. Each abstract is reproduced in full under its recorded open licence so that you can read the authors’ own words. They illustrate the literature; they are not a systematic summary of it. Citation counts measure attention, not reliability or clinical benefit.
| Study / authors | Year | Source label / design | Europe PMC citations | Licence / source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rethinking category-selectivity in human visual cortex | 2026 | Review article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 31 | cc0 PMID 40836402 · DOI · PMC12458057 |
| Rapid concerted switching of the neural code in the inferotemporal cortex | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 20 | cc by PMID 41882367 · DOI · PMC13148990 |
| Electrophysiological classification of human layer 2-3 pyramidal neurons reveals subtype-specific synaptic interactions | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 9 | cc by PMID 41372679 · DOI · PMC12880919 |
Rethinking category-selectivity in human visual cortex [1]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- A wealth of studies report evidence that occipitotemporal cortex tessellates into 'category-selective' brain regions that are apparently specialized for representing ecologically important visual stimuli like faces, bodies, scenes, and tools.
- Closing excerpt
- Grounding our thinking in behavioral relevance rather than category-selectivity raises a host of theoretical and empirical issues that we discuss while providing proposals for how existing tools can be harnessed in this light to better understand visual function in occipitotemporal cortex.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (150 words)
A wealth of studies report evidence that occipitotemporal cortex tessellates into 'category-selective' brain regions that are apparently specialized for representing ecologically important visual stimuli like faces, bodies, scenes, and tools. Here, we argue that while valuable insights have been gained through the lens of category-selectivity, a more complete view of visual function in occipitotemporal cortex requires centering the behavioral relevance of visual properties in real-world environments rather than stimulus category. Focusing on behavioral relevance challenges a simple mapping between stimulus and visual function in occipitotemporal cortex because the environmental properties relevant to a behavior are visually diverse and how a given property is represented is modulated by our goals. Grounding our thinking in behavioral relevance rather than category-selectivity raises a host of theoretical and empirical issues that we discuss while providing proposals for how existing tools can be harnessed in this light to better understand visual function in occipitotemporal cortex.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc0 licence; © the authors. PMID 40836402 · DOI · PMC12458057
Rapid concerted switching of the neural code in the inferotemporal cortex [2]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- A fundamental paradigm in neuroscience is that neurons represent the world through fixed tuning functions, with stable mappings from stimulus features to firing rates1.
- Closing excerpt
- More broadly, our findings indicate that there is a previously unknown mechanism for neural representation: concerted stimulus-dependent switching of the neural code used by a cortical area.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (214 words)
A fundamental paradigm in neuroscience is that neurons represent the world through fixed tuning functions, with stable mappings from stimulus features to firing rates1. Here, we report that tuning can instead shift rapidly and coherently across a neural population, enabling a dynamic transition from detecting a broad category to discriminating individual exemplars. We set out to address a longstanding debate in visual neuroscience about whether the inferotemporal cortex uses a specialized code for specific object categories or a general-purpose code that applies to all objects. We found that face-selective cells in macaque inferotemporal cortex initially adopted a general code optimized for face detection. However, after a rapid concerted population event lasting less than 20 ms, the neural code transformed into a face-specific one, with two striking features: response gradients to principal detection-related dimensions reversed direction, and new tuning emerged for multiple higher-dimensional features that support fine face discrimination. These dynamics in face patches were specific to face stimuli and did not occur in response to non-face objects. Thus, for faces, face cells transition from detection to discrimination by switching from an object-general code to a face-specific one. More broadly, our findings indicate that there is a previously unknown mechanism for neural representation: concerted stimulus-dependent switching of the neural code used by a cortical area.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 41882367 · DOI · PMC13148990
Electrophysiological classification of human layer 2-3 pyramidal neurons reveals subtype-specific synaptic interactions [3]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Understanding the functional principles of the human brain requires deep insight into its neuronal and network physiology.
- Closing excerpt
- Such a fine network structure suggests that the functional diversity of pyramidal neurons translates into differential computations within the L2-3 microcircuit of the human cortex.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (167 words)
Understanding the functional principles of the human brain requires deep insight into its neuronal and network physiology. In superficial layers of temporal cortex, molecular and morphological subtypes of glutamatergic excitatory pyramidal neurons have been described, but subtyping based on electrophysiological parameters has not been performed. The extent to which pyramidal neuron subtypes contribute to the specialization of physiological interactions by forming synaptic subnetworks remains unclear. Here we performed whole-cell patch-clamp recordings of more than 1,400 layer 2-3 (L2-3) pyramidal neurons and 1,400 identified monosynaptic connections in acute slices of human temporal cortex. We extract principles of neuronal and synaptic physiology along with anatomy and functional synaptic connectivity. We also show robust classification of pyramidal neurons into four electrophysiological subtypes, corroborated by differences in morphology and decipher subtype-specific synaptic interactions. Principles of microcircuit organization are found to be conserved at the individual level. Such a fine network structure suggests that the functional diversity of pyramidal neurons translates into differential computations within the L2-3 microcircuit of the human cortex.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 41372679 · DOI · PMC12880919
Key reviews and meta-analyses
The most cited review-type papers among PubMed’s best-match results for this heading, listed with bibliographic details only. Follow the links for the full text and access terms.
- Research article Re-evaluating the role of TPJ in attentional control: contextual updating? [4]
- Research article The anatomical and functional specialization of the fusiform gyrus [5]
- Research article The Encoding of Speech Sounds in the Superior Temporal Gyrus [6]
- Research article The what, where and how of auditory-object perception [7]
- Research article Great Expectations: Is there Evidence for Predictive Coding in Auditory Cortex? [8]
- Research article The inferior parietal lobule and temporoparietal junction: A network perspective [9]
References
- Ritchie JB, Wardle SG, Vaziri-Pashkam M, Kravitz DJ, Baker CI. Rethinking category-selectivity in human visual cortex. . 2026. PMID 40836402 · DOI · PMC12458057
- Shi Y, Bi D, Hesse JK, Lanfranchi FF, Chen S, Tsao DY. Rapid concerted switching of the neural code in the inferotemporal cortex. . 2026. PMID 41882367 · DOI · PMC13148990
- Planert H, Mittermaier FX, Grosser S, Fidzinski P, Schneider UC, Radbruch H, et al.. Electrophysiological classification of human layer 2-3 pyramidal neurons reveals subtype-specific synaptic interactions. . 2026. PMID 41372679 · DOI · PMC12880919
- Geng JJ, Vossel S. Re-evaluating the role of TPJ in attentional control: contextual updating?. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2013. PMID 23999082 · DOI · PMC3878596
- Weiner KS, Zilles K, Zilles K. The anatomical and functional specialization of the fusiform gyrus. Neuropsychologia. 2016. PMID 26119921 · DOI · PMC4714959
- Yi HG, Leonard MK, Chang EF. The Encoding of Speech Sounds in the Superior Temporal Gyrus. Neuron. 2019. PMID 31220442 · DOI · PMC6602075
- Bizley JK, Cohen YE. The what, where and how of auditory-object perception. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2013. PMID 24052177 · DOI · PMC4082027
- Heilbron M, Chait M. Great Expectations: Is there Evidence for Predictive Coding in Auditory Cortex?. Neuroscience. 2018. PMID 28782642 · DOI
- Igelström KM, Graziano MSA. The inferior parietal lobule and temporoparietal junction: A network perspective. Neuropsychologia. 2017. PMID 28057458 · DOI
About this article
- Sources
- NLM Medical Subject Headings (definition, synonyms); NCBI PubMed (counts, identifiers); Europe PMC (open-access abstracts and citation counts).
- Verification
- Every reference was resolved against PubMed on 2026-10-31; title, year and DOI matched.
- Review state
- automated source verified; no human expert review has been recorded yet.
- Version
- 1, last updated 2026-10-29.
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Evidence strength
EvidenceHelix's computed view of the study designs behind this topic: how common meta-analyses, randomized trials and reviews are, how recent the literature is, and a plain-language reading. It describes the design mix of the literature. It is not a quality appraisal of any study, and it is not medical advice.