Cortical abnormalities and language function in young patients with basal ganglia stroke

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Neurology
• Radiology

Background:

• Basal ganglia lesions in young stroke patients can affect language function.
• It remains unclear if these impairments stem from direct basal ganglia damage or associated cerebral abnormalities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between MRI findings and language performance in young stroke patients with basal ganglia infarctions.
• To determine if language deficits are caused by basal ganglia damage or other cerebral abnormalities.

Main Methods:

• Seventeen stroke patients and seventeen controls underwent MRI, including perfusion imaging and voxel-based morphometry.
• Language function was assessed using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Third Edition (CELF-III) test.

Main Results:

• Stroke patients performed significantly worse on language tests than controls.
• Voxel-based morphometry revealed correlations between language function and gray matter density in cortical language areas in left-hemisphere damaged patients.
• Hemodynamic abnormalities in cortical language areas were observed in patients with the most severe language impairments.

Conclusions:

• Language impairments after basal ganglia damage may primarily result from subtle abnormalities in cortical language areas.
• These cortical abnormalities might be undetectable with conventional structural MRI.