Functional magnetic resonance imaging to word generation task in a patient with Broca's aphasia

We describe the findings of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a patient with Broca's aphasia. The patient was a 45-year-old, right-handed woman who developed Broca's aphasia after infarction in the left frontal lobe. The first fMRI showed no signals in the left frontal lobe during verbal tasks, 2 weeks after the onset of infarction. Four weeks later, when the patient's symptom had improved, the second fMRI showed some increase in the fMRI signals in the left frontal lobe. Seven months later, she had completely recovered the ability to speak. The last fMRI then showed that the increment in signal activity in the left frontal lobe during verbal tasks had recovered to the level seen in normal subjects. There was a good correlation between the increase in task-related signals in Broca's area and the recovery of language function. Our findings show that fMRI has can be important in assessing cognitive functions in patients with Broca's aphasia.