Language deficits in a child with omolateral (left) temporo-basal and cerebellar lesions

We report the case of an 8-year-old boy with two distinct brain lesions, probably hamartomas or low grade gliomas: one in the left basal temporal region, with involvement of the fusiform gyrus, the other in the white matter of the left cerebellar hemisphere. Both lesions were diagnosed at seven, when NMR was performed because of partial complex seizure. A mild delay in the first language acquisition and a long-lasting difficulty in word retrieval were reported. On neuropsychological testing, language was impaired more in production tasks than in comprehension ones, with severe deficit in word finding. The etiological role of the two different lesions is discussed in relation to experimental evidence of the existence of a distinct language area in the basal temporal region (fusiform gyrus).