Relationship between language lateralization and handedness in left-hemispheric partial epilepsy

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between language lateralization and handedness in patients with epilepsy and a left-sided seizure focus and in healthy control subjects. METHODS: We recruited a consecutive series of 74 patients and 70 control subjects. Functional MRI, using a noun-verb generation task, was performed to establish the language laterality index (LI). Handedness was quantified using the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. RESULTS: Patients showed a shift toward atypical language lateralization (0.43 ± 0.47; controls 0.57 ± 034; p ≤ 0.05) and left-handedness (55 ± 57; controls 74 ± 39; p ≤ 0.05). The LI and handedness were correlated in patients (r = 0.54; F = 25.9; p < 0.0..