Language fMRI activation declines in patients with left medial temporal lobe epilepsy

ABSTRACT

Patients with epilepsy commonly have language deficits. This study investigates whether language fMRI activation and language dysfunction are systematically related in patients with left medial temporal lobe epilepsy [left-mTLE]. We studied sixteen patients with left-mTLE and 16 healthy controls. Semantic judgment task functional MRI scanning and neuropsychological tests were performed. Activation maps of language function MRI analyzed by analysis of functional neuroimages [AFNI]. There was no difference in activation maps of the semantic judgment task fMRI between left-mTLE and healthy controls group. Compared with a healthy control group, in the left-mTLE group, there was significantly less activation volume in the left language regions of the inferior frontal and Superior temporal gyrus; the left-mTLE group also had significantly lower neuropsychological language scores. Language dysfunction in left-mTLE patients is associated with decline of language fMRI activation