Learning and recall of story content and spatial location after unilateral temporal-lobe excision in children and adolescents.

The present study examined verbal and spatial learning and memory in children and adolescents who had undergone unilateral temporal lobectomy versus controls. All participants were trained to criterion before a delay to assess learning efficiency. There were no significant differences between the groups in rate of learning the verbal task. The right temporal-lobe group, but not the left, had difficulty learning spatial information. These findings indicate a specific effect of early right temporal-lobe lesions on spatial learning. As material-specificity is more often found in adults for verbal information, the present results highlight the unique role of the temporal-lobe in development.