Language network measures at rest indicate individual differences in naming decline after anterior temporal lobe resection.

While anterior temporal lobe (ATL) resection is an effective treatment for temporal lobe epilepsy, surgery on the dominant hemisphere is associated with variable decline in confrontation naming. Accurate prediction of naming impairment is critical to inform clinical decision making, and while there has been some degree of success using task-based functional MRI (fMRI) paradigms, there remains a growing interest in the predictive utility of resting-state connectivity as it allows for relatively shorter scans with low task demands. Our objective was to assess the relationship between measures of preoperative resting-state connectivity and postoperative naming change in patients following left ATL resection.

Cognitive and functional correlates of accelerated long-term forgetting in temporal lobe epilepsy.

While we know that hippocampal dysfunction is responsible for the memory deficits that patients with temporal lobe epilepsy exhibit at relatively short study-test delays, the role of this region in accelerated long-term forgetting (ALF) is not yet clear. In the present study, we probed the role of the hippocampus in ALF by directly comparing memory for associations to memory that could be supported by item recognition during a forced choice recognition task over delays ranging from 15-min to 72-h. We additionally examined resting-state functional connectivity between the hippocampus and cortical regions known to be involved in processing these types of stimuli, as well as the relationship between ALF and various clinical variables including structural abnormality in the hippocampus, lateralization of epileptic focus, presence of seizures across the retention period, and standardized composite memory scores.

Applications of Resting-State Functional MR Imaging to Epilepsy.

We discuss the value of resting-state functional MR imaging (rsfMR imaging) as an emerging technique to address questions about memory and language that are central in surgery for temporal-lobe epilepsy, namely the identification and characterization of eloquent cortex to avoid surgical morbidity. The emergence of a robust set of data using rsfMR imaging has opened new avenues for exploring more direct relationships between neural networks and current cognitive function and prediction of postoperative change. These techniques are also being explored for their potential to characterize epilepsy subtypes, identify epileptic foci, and monitor treatment effects.