Male, 47 years old, with word finding difficulty and known left temporal tumor. fMRI is requested for language mapping prior to surgery. Of the tested language paradigms, the most reliable language related cortical activation is seen with the word generation, verb generation, and sentence completion paradigms. All paradigms produce a similar pattern of language related cortical activation. Language is left dominant. Cortical activation related to the putative Broca's area is identified in the left inferior frontal lobe (primarily the pars opercularis and pars triangularis). Broca's area is well removed from the patient's temporal lobe tumor and does not appear to be affected by the nonenhancing peritumoral signal abnormality. Cortical activation related to the putative Wernicke's area is identified along the posterior aspect of the left superior temporal sulcus. Wernicke's area is also well removed from the enhancing component of the patient's tumor. However, it is encompassed by the nonenhancing peritumoral signal abnormality.
Technically successful functional MRI with language mapping as above.