title: Nonvisual spatial navigation fMRI lateralizes mesial temporal lobe epilepsy in a patient with congenital blindness.
abstract: Nonvisual spatial navigation functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) may help clinicians determine memory lateralization in blind individuals with refractory mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). We report on an exceptional case of a congenitally blind woman with late-onset left MTLE undergoing presurgical memory fMRI. To activate mesial temporal structures despite the lack of visual memory, the patient was requested to recall familiar routes using nonvisual multisensory and verbal cues. Our findings demonstrate the diagnostic value of a nonvisual fMRI task to lateralize MTLE despite congenital blindness and may therefore contribute to the risk assessment for postsurgical amnesia in rare cases with refractory MTLE and accompanying congenital blindness.
authors.affiliation: a Swiss Epilepsy Center , Zürich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Gianina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Toller
authors.forename: Babu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Adhimoolam
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Grunwald
authors.forename: Hans-Jürgen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Huppertz
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: König
authors.forename: Hennric
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jokeit
mesh_terms: D001766:Blindness / Q000150:complications* / Q000151:congenital / Q000523:psychology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D059906:Neuroimaging; D065854:Spatial Navigation / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: congenital blindness; memory; mesial temporal lobe epilepsy; spatial navigation fMRI