Spatiotemporal patterns of language-specific brain activity in patients with chronic aphasia after stroke using magnetoencephalography.
Six participants with chronic aphasia secondary to first-ever ischemic stroke within the middle cerebral artery (MCA) distribution of the left hemisphere and six neurologically intact controls of similar age were given a running recognition memory task for words while the magnetic flux normal to the scalp surface was measured with a whole-head neuromagnetometer. This task had been previously shown to be valid for the localization and lateralization of brain activity specific to receptive language function. As expected, patients exhibited relatively decreased activation in areas known to be involved in receptive language function, including superior temporal gyrus (STG) in the left hemisphere, as well as increased activation of areas outside of the left STG that might potentially support language function. Decreased activation within left STG was associated with a reduction in receptive language in patients, as was increased activation outside of left STG. Results support hypotheses suggesting that peri-lesional areas outside premorbid language areas may assume receptive language function after aphasia secondary to stroke, but that better recovery occurs when putative premorbid language areas are able to normalize.
Breier
Joshua I
JI
Department of Neurosurgery, Division of Clinical Neurosciences, Vivian L. Smith Center for Neurologic Research, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Joshua.I.Breier@uth.tmc.edu
Castillo
Eduardo M
EM
Boake
Corwin
C
Billingsley
Rebecca
R
Maher
Lynn
L
Francisco
Gerard
G
Papanicolaou
Andrew C
AC
D000368:Aged; D001037:Aphasia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D020244:Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D012016:Reference Values; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*