title: Do quiescent arachnoid cysts alter CNS functional organization?: A fMRI and morphometric study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether congenital and clinically quiescent arachnoid cysts (AC) in the left temporal fossa alter the functional organization of adjacent cortices.
  
  
  METHODS
  fMRI mapping was applied in five right-handed asymptomatic patients to determine the functional organization of language. Moreover, morphometry was performed in each patient to gain the size of cortical surface areas and cortical thickness values in the neighboring brain adjacent to the AC and explicitly in the left opercular region.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four patients showed a clear left hemisphere language dominance regardless of the cyst size; a mixed laterality of language organization was found in the remaining patient. An interesting dissociation of morphometric data was assessed when comparing strongly language-related cortices in the inferior frontal gyrus with the entire neighboring cortices. Morphometry in the neighboring brain regions of the AC showed 1) overall reduced cortical surface areas and 2) a decrease in cortical thickness compared to the homologous right side. However, the surface area of the fronto-opercular region in the left inferior frontal gyrus-i.e., the pars triangularis and the pars opercularis-was larger on the left as compared to the right side. Both structures have earlier been identified to represent the morphologic substrate of language dominance in the left hemisphere.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Arachnoid cysts do not disturb the normal asymmetry of hemisphere language organization despite delicate locations adjacent to the left inferior frontal gyrus.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Leipzig, Germany. hund@cns.mpg.de
authors.forename: Margret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hund-Georgiadis
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yves Von Cramon
authors.forename: Frithjof
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kruggel
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Preul
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016080:Arachnoid Cysts / Q000473:pathology*; D001519:Behavior; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000473:pathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen