Epilepsy Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Epilepsy, including details on symptoms, causes, treatment, drugs, information.

Speech arrest with stimulation may not reliably predict language deficit after epilepsy surgery.

Seeck M, Pegna AJ, Ortigue S, Spinelli L, Dessibourg CA, Delavelle J, Blanke O, Michel CM, Landis T, Villemure JG

Presurgical Epilepsy Evaluation Unit, Functional Neurology and Neurosurgery Program, University of Geneva, Switzerland. margitta.seeck@hcuge.ch

The authors present a patient in whom electrical cortical stimulation of the posterior temporal cortex induced speech arrest, comprehension deficits, and other language-related impairments. This area was ultimately resected because of persistence of a severe seizure disorder. No postoperative aphasia was observed despite the cortical stimulation results, and the patient is since seizure free. These findings question the well-established principle that corticography directly reflects local cortical functions in all patients.

Published 28 February 2006 in Neurology, 66(4): 592-4.
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