Neural correlates of verbal semantic memory in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.

Functional imaging data suggest that the core network engaged in verbal semantic memory (SM) processing encompasses frontal and temporal lobe structures, with a strong left lateralization in normal right handers. The impact of long term temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) on this network has only partly been elucidated. We studied verbal SM in 50 patients with chronic, intractable TLE (left TLE=26, right TLE=24) and 35 right handed normal controls using a verbal fMRI semantic decision paradigm.

Is math lateralised on the same side as language? Right hemisphere aphasia and mathematical abilities.

The main purpose of the present study was to learn how mathematical abilities are located and develop in the brain with respect to language. Mathematical abilities were assessed in six right-handed patients affected by aphasia following a lesion to their non-dominant hemisphere (crossed aphasia) and in two left-handed aphasics with a right-sided lesion. Acalculia, although in different degrees, was found in all cases.

Language lateralization in temporal lobe epilepsy: a comparison between fMRI and the Wada Test.

Purpose: Recent studies have claimed that language functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can identify language lateralization in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and that fMRI-based findings are highly concordant with the conventional assessment procedure of speech dominance, the intracarotid amobarbital test (IAT).

Methods: To establish the power of language fMRI to detect language lateralization during presurgical assessment, we compared the findings of a semantic decision paradigm with the results of a standard IAT in 68 patients with chronic intractable right and left temporal lobe epilepsy (rTLE, n=28; lTLE, n=40) who consecutively underwent a presurgical evaluation program. The patient group also included 14 (20.

Hippocampal formation involvement in a language-activation task in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.

Purpose: The study aims to explore the contribution of the hippocampal formation to the retained language-comprehension network in patients with unilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).

Methods: We performed a functional magnetic resonance (MRI) study based on a language comprehension paradigm in 45 right-handed patients with unilateral mesial TLE and 35 healthy control subjects. Activations in the hippocampal formations in both hemispheres were analyzed for each subject as well as for groups of left TLE, right TLE, and controls.

Basal ganglia lesions and the theory of fronto-subcortical loops: neuropsychological findings in two patients with left caudate lesions.

Basal ganglia lesions have a high prevalence for associated behavioural impairments. However, the exact pattern of cognitive impairments and its relationship to individual basal ganglia lesion have rarely been investigated by means of a detailed neuropsychological and lesion study. Furthermore, different mechanisms have been proposed as relevant for the observed cognitive deficits; among these, the hypothesis of fronto-subcortical loops (Alexander et al.

Facial recognition in primary focal dystonia.

The basal ganglia seem to be involved in emotional processing. Primary dystonia is a movement disorder considered to result from basal ganglia dysfunction, and the aim of the present study was to investigate emotion recognition in patients with primary focal dystonia. Thirty-two patients with primary cranial (n=12) and cervical (n=20) dystonia were compared to 32 healthy controls matched for age, sex, and educational level on the facially expressed emotion labeling (FEEL) test, a computer-based tool measuring a person's ability to recognize facially expressed emotions.

Genital automatisms: a video-EEG study in patients with medically refractory seizures.

Purpose: Genital automatisms (GAs) are rare clinical phenomena during or after epileptic seizures. They are defined as repeated fondling, grabbing, or scratching of the genitals. The anatomic correlates of GAs have been discussed controversially.

Specific order impairment in arabic number writing: A case-study.

The present study examines the transitory deficit in transcoding verbal to Arabic numbers in an aphasic patient, TM. She showed a mild syntactic impairment in syntactic comprehension of verbal numbers, with preserved performance in comprehension of Arabic numbers, in access to semantic representation, as well as in reading of Arabic numbers, but she committed 75% of errors when required to write numbers in the Arabic format to dictation. In conformity to the previous literature on transcoding deficits, the majority of her errors were syntactic (60%).

Linguistic deficits following left selective amygdalohippocampectomy: a prospective study.

Language deficits in 10 patients with medically intractable left-sided temporal lobe epilepsy prior to and following selective amygdalohippocampectomy are described. Preoperatively, a pattern of minor linguistic deficits was observed in three patients; isolated minor naming deficits were detectable in one additional patient. Three months after surgery, six patients' linguistic functions were unchanged, whereas in four patients, a significant decline in linguistic functions could be observed.

Linguistic and neuropsychological deficits in crossed conduction aphasia. Report of three cases.

This study describes the linguistic and neuropsychological findings in three right-handed patients with crossed conduction aphasia. Despite the location of the lesion in the right hemisphere, all patients displayed a combination of linguistic deficits typically found in conduction aphasia following analogous damage to the left hemisphere. Associated cognitive deficits varied across the three patients.

Medial temporal lobe activation during semantic language processing: fMRI findings in healthy left- and right-handers.

Medial temporal lobe (MTL) areas are well known to serve episodic memory functions; their contribution to semantic memory has been occasionally noticed but not studied in detail. In the present fMRI study, 35 right-handed and 35 left-handed healthy subjects performed a semantic decision paradigm during which subjects heard spoken concrete nouns designating objects and had to decide on whether these objects were available in the supermarket and cost lest then a certain amount of money. The control paradigm consisted of sequences of low and high tones where subjects had to decide whether a sequence contained two high tones.

Acute conduction aphasia: an analysis of 20 cases.

In this study, the linguistic performance of 20 patients with acute conduction aphasia (CA) is described. CA presented as a relatively homogeneous aphasic syndrome characterized by a severe impairment of repetition and fluent expressive language functions with frequent phonemic paraphasias, repetitive self-corrections, word-finding difficulties, and paraphrasing. Language comprehension as assessed by tests of auditory and reading comprehension was only mildly impaired, whereas most patients performed poorly on the Token Test.

Persistent cognitive deficits associated with lithium intoxication: a neuropsychological case description.

We present the case of a 51-year-old patient with an acute lithium intoxication associated with several cognitive deficits. During the acute phase of intoxication the patient displayed general psychomotor slowing, dysarthric speech, mood changes, and incoherent discourse. Neuropsychological assessment revealed ideomotor apraxia, profound deficits of visuospatial processing, an impairment of memory and of frontal-executive functions.