title: The effects of lateralized temporal lobe dysfunction on formal and semantic word fluency.
abstract: Word fluency performance was studied in 32 patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and 25 healthy dextral controls. Two word fluency tasks were administered conforming to either formal-based criteria or semantic-based criteria. Performance for TLE patients was assessed both pre-operatively and approximately 1 week following anterior temporal lobectomy. Both formal and semantic word fluency decreased regardless of resection laterality. Left TLE patients performed significantly worse at both pre- and post-operative assessments compared to the right TLE patients, while right TLE patients performed significantly poorer than controls on all verbal fluency criteria at pre- and post-operative assessments. In addition, both TLE and control groups produced significantly fewer formal and semantic words during the second 30-sec portion of each task. These findings are discussed in terms of temporal lobe contributions to word fluency production and lexical semantic processing.
authors: Department of Neurology, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta 30912-3275.
authors: R C
authors: RC
authors: Martin
authors: D W
authors: DW
authors: Loring
authors: K J
authors: KJ
authors: Meador
authors: G P
authors: GP
authors: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000008:administration & dosage; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011612:Psychosurgery; D012660:Semantics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D014936:Word Association Tests
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants