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

Abstract

Objective: 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).

Methodology: 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) .

Results: Activation maps of the semantic judgment task fMRI is no difference between left-mTLE and healthy controls group. Compared with a healthy control group, in the left-mTLE group, there was signi?cantly less activation volume in the left language regions of the inferior frontal and Superior temporal gyrus; the left-mTLE group also had signi?cantly lower neuropsychological language scores.

Conclusion: language dysfunction in left-mTLE patients is associated with decline of language fMRI activation.