Functional MRI and Wada studies in patients with interhemispheric dissociation of language functions. Epilepsy Behav 2008 Aug;13(2):350-6
Date
05/28/2008Pubmed ID
18504162Pubmed Central ID
PMC2593837DOI
10.1016/j.yebeh.2008.04.010Scopus ID
2-s2.0-45649083188 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 47 CitationsAbstract
Rare patients with chronic epilepsy show interhemispheric dissociation of language functions on intracarotid amobarbital (Wada) testing. We encountered four patients with interhemispheric dissociation in 490 consecutive Wada language tests. In all cases, performance on overt speech production tasks was supported by the hemisphere contralateral to the seizure focus, whereas performance on comprehension tasks was served by the hemisphere with the seizure focus. These data suggest that speech production capacity is more likely to shift hemispheres than is language comprehension. Wada and fMRI language lateralization scores were discordant in three of the four patients. However, the two methods aligned more closely when Wada measures loading on comprehension were used to calculate lateralization scores. Thus, interhemispheric dissociation of language functions could explain some cases of discordance on Wada/fMRI language comparisons, particularly when the fMRI measure used is not sensitive to speech production processes.
Author List
Lee D, Swanson SJ, Sabsevitz DS, Hammeke TA, Scott Winstanley F, Possing ET, Binder JRAuthors
Jeffrey R. Binder MD Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of WisconsinSara J. Swanson PhD Chief, Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of Wisconsin
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdultAmobarbital
Brain Mapping
Carotid Arteries
Cerebral Cortex
Comprehension
Dominance, Cerebral
Epilepsy
Female
Humans
Hypnotics and Sedatives
Injections, Intra-Arterial
Language Tests
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Speech
Speech Production Measurement
