Left hemisphere regions are critical for language in the face of early left focal brain injury.

A predominant theory regarding early stroke and its effect on language development, is that early left hemisphere lesions trigger compensatory processes that allow the right hemisphere to assume dominant language functions, and this is thought to underlie the near normal language development observed after early stroke. To test this theory, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain activity during category fluency in participants who had sustained pre- or perinatal left hemisphere stroke (n = 25) and in neurologically normal siblings (n = 27). In typically developing children, performance of a category fluency task elicits strong involvement of left frontal and lateral temporal regions and a lesser involvement of right hemisphere structures.

IQ decline following early unilateral brain injury: a longitudinal study.

We examine whether children with early unilateral brain injury show an IQ decline over the course of development. Fifteen brain injured children were administered an IQ test once before age 7 and again several years later. Post-7 IQ scores were significantly lower than pre-7 IQ scores.

A family with seizures and minor features of tuberous sclerosis and a novel TSC2 mutation.

The authors studied nine members of a family that demonstrated a limited form of tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). Cutaneous findings were limited to hypopigmented macules in four patients. Five family members had recurrent seizures, and three of these had migrational defects of the cerebral mantle.

Periventricular nodular heterotopia in patients with filamin-1 gene mutations: neuroimaging findings.

Background: The filamin-1 (FLN-1) gene is responsible for periventricular nodular heterotopia (PNH), which is an X-linked dominant neuronal migration disorder.

Objective: To review the clinical and imaging findings in a series of patients with documented filamin-1 mutations.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective review of the medical records and MR studies of a series of patients with PNH and confirmed FLN-1 mutations was done.