Nonvisual spatial navigation fMRI lateralizes mesial temporal lobe epilepsy in a patient with congenital blindness.

We report on an exceptional case of a congenitally blind woman with late-onset left MTLE undergoing presurgical memory fMRI. To activate mesial temporal structures despite the lack of visual memory, the patient was requested to recall familiar routes using nonvisual multisensory and verbal cues. Our findings demonstrate the diagnostic value of a nonvisual fMRI task to lateralize MTLE despite congenital blindness and may therefore contribute to the risk assessment for postsurgical amnesia in rare cases with refractory MTLE and accompanying congenital blindness. PMID: 25485743 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25485743?dopt=Abstract

Source: Neurocase - December 8, 2014 Category: Neurology Authors: Toller G, Adhimoolam B, Grunwald T, Huppertz HJ, König K, Jokeit H Tags: Neurocase Source Type: research