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

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: There was no difference in activation maps of the semantic judgment task fMRI between left-mTLE and healthy controls group. Compared with a healthy control group, in the left-mTLE group, there was significantly less activation volume in the left language regions of the inferior frontal and Superior temporal gyrus; the left-mTLE group also had significantly lower neuropsychological language scores. Conclusion: Language dysfunction in left-mTLE patients is associated with decline of language fMRI activation.