Category-specific naming impairment in temporal lobe epilepsy through cortical electrical stimulation: Case report

Current studies based on specific naming subcategories are scarce and specially if they are combined with cortical electrical stimulation mapping (CES). Most researchers use generic categories of objects that have not shown to be useful for epileptic patients. The present study explores the ability to retrieve words with the aim of naming entities through CES during surgery of a patient with left temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) prior to anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL). During the CES we observed alterations in the naming of faces, living things (LTh) and parts of the body, with conservation of non-living things (NLTh). CES allowed the identification and prediction of regions at risk of being resected. This result shows that the naming deficits are selective and can be used as indicators and predictors of post-operative cognitive dysfunction in TLE since the regions involved in this function are associated with the pole and inferior and medial temporal gyrus.