INVESTIGADORES
ALBA FERRARA lucia M
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Correlation of language dominance and cortical structural measures in temporal lobe epilepsy
Autor/es:
ALBA FERRARA, L.
Lugar:
Oxford
Reunión:
Workshop; Autumn school in Cognitive Neuroscience at University of Oxford; 2008
Institución organizadora:
University of Oxford
Resumen:
  Anatomical asymmetry has been considered as a marker of functional specialization. Specially, the asymmetry in perisylvian and inferofrontal areas is related to hemispheric language lateralization.   In medial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) language lateralization tends to be more often atypical (right sided or bilateral), as compared to healthy subjects. Grey and white matter abnormalities in MTLE are not restricted to the hippocampus but are found also in extrahippocampal structures.   Aim: To disentangle the relationship between functional language lateralization and gray matter density of language related cortical areas in patients with MTLE.   Methods: We investigated 18 MTLE patients (12 with left MTLE) and 102 controls. Language lateralization was measured by fMRI. Gray matter volume as measured by VBM based on T1-weighted images was correlated with language lateralization index within both groups. Also, a comparison of gray matter volume between patients and controls were performed.   Results: The analysis of healthy subjects showed that atypical lateralised language was associated with larger right frontal operculum, as compared to typically lateralised subjects. An analysis of gray matter differences between MTLE patients and controls showed alterations in the patients group located in the hippocampus, thalamus and fusiform gyrus in the left hemisphere. Finally, comparison between patients and controls correlated with language lateralization index did not reveal any significant result.   Conclusion: The first contrast suggests that the right frontal operculum is related to atypical language lateralization, maybe as result of use-dependent plasticity. VBM was shown to be sensitive to detect structural alterations in MTLE patients. The lack of significant results in the last contrast may be due to the small number of patients included. A greater sample of patient data is going to be collected.