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Picture-naming in patients with left frontal lobe tumor – a functional neuroimaging study

Brain Imaging and Behavior volume 6, pages 462–471 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate behavioral performance as well as cortical activation patterns while picture-naming, in patients with left frontal lobe tumor prior to surgery. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to compare behavior and brain activations while 10 patients with a tumor in the left frontal lobe and 9 controls, named aloud simple pictures presented in a block design inside a 3 T Philips Achieva scanner. Evaluations of task performance included naming accuracy and articulation time. Behaviorally, patients took significantly longer to articulate picture names but naming accuracy was preserved. Analysis of brain activations showed differences only in the frontal regions of the cortical network. In particular, while the frontal activations in the control population were focused and localized in the left inferior orbito-frontal gyrus, in patients the frontal network was distributed and included a significantly greater number of clusters that were distributed in homologous or near homologous areas of the (orbito-frontal gyrus) left and/or right hemisphere of the frontal lobe. Our results suggest that in patients with a left frontal lobe tumor the process of naming simple pictures is preserved but the cortical network of activation in the frontal region is altered and is distributed in the frontal regions of both hemispheres.

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Abbreviations

PET:

Positron Emission Tomography

fMRI:

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

BOLD:

Blood Oxygen Level Dependent

SPM:

Statistical Parametric Mapping

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank P.N.Tandon and P. Raghunathan for providing excellent comments that helped in considerable improvements to the manuscript. The authors gratefully acknowledge technical support for data acquisition provided by J. Ahlawat and T.R. Abhilash. The authors also acknowledge R. Garg for her contribution in coordinating the patients for the study.

Funding

Intramural funding provided by National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, India.

Competing Interests

None

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Affiliations

  1. National Brain Research Centre, NH-8, Nainwal Mode, Manesar, 122050, India

    Anya Chakraborty, T. A. Sumathi & Nandini Chatterjee Singh

  2. Paras Hospital, Gurgaon, 122 002, India

    Veer Singh Mehta

Authors
  1. Anya Chakraborty
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  2. T. A. Sumathi
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  3. Veer Singh Mehta
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  4. Nandini Chatterjee Singh
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Correspondence to Nandini Chatterjee Singh.

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Chakraborty, A., Sumathi, T.A., Mehta, V.S. et al. Picture-naming in patients with left frontal lobe tumor – a functional neuroimaging study. Brain Imaging and Behavior 6, 462–471 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-012-9165-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-012-9165-4

Keywords

  • Picture naming
  • fMRI
  • Frontal lobe
  • Compensation
  • Tumor