PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the brain regions for language functions with the functional Magnetic Resonance Image (fMRI) in patients suffering from intractable temporal lobe epilepsy. METHODS: During fMRI, patients performed a verb-generation task. They heard concrete words through headphones and were asked to think of their utility (e.g. pencil - to write), without verbalizing or making any facial or tongue movements, keeping silent and with eyes shut. A laterality index (LI) was calculated and we verify the brain regions activities for language. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Our results identified that that 92.3% of the patients analyzed by fMRI presented left hemisphere language and 7.7% presented mixed language representation. It was observed more patients with activation in left Broca area, left pré-motor cortex, left Wernicke area and left hearing cortex.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging; intractable temporal lobe epilepsy; brain dominance; language
