Journal article
Neuropsychological and functional MRI studies provide converging evidence of anterior language dysfunction in BECTS
LM Lillywhite, MM Saling, A Simon Harvey, DF Abbott, JS Archer, DF Vears, IE Scheffer, GD Jackson
Epilepsia | Published : 2009
Abstract
Purpose: Benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) is the most common epilepsy syndrome of childhood and can be associated with language difficulties. The exact profile of these difficulties and their neurofunctional underpinnings, however, are not yet clear. Methods: To further understand the impact of the BECTS syndrome on language, we assessed language performance using standard neuropsychological measures, and patterns of language lateralization using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in children with typical BECTS (n = 20) and healthy controls (n = 20). Results: The fMRI analyses revealed that language-related activation was less lateralized to the left hem..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the children and their families for participating in our research as well as Janet Barchett and the neurophysiology teams at Austin Health, the Royal Children's Hospital, and Monash Medical Centre for assistance with the identification of potential subjects. We also thank the radiographers involved in the project, Todd Little, Heather Ducie, and Shawna Farquharson, as well as Esther Hutchinson for testing some of the participants. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Health and Medical Research Council, Neurosciences Victoria, and the Brain Imaging Research Foundation, Australia. We confirm that we have read the Journal's position on issues involved in ethical publication and affirm that this report is consistent with those guidelines.