Determination of Differences in Seed-Based Resting State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Language Networks in Pediatric Patients with Left- and Right-Lateralized Language: A Pilot Study

Background And Purpose: The current tools available for localization of expressive language, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and cortical stimulation mapping (CSM), require that the patient remain stationary and follow language commands with precise timing. Many pediatric epilepsy patients, however, have intact language skills but are unable to participate in these tasks due to cognitive impairments or young age. In adult subjects, there is evidence that language laterality can be determined by resting state (RS) fMRI activity, however there are few studies on the use of RS to accurately predict language laterality in children.

Methods: A retrospective review of pediatric patients at Texas Children's Hospital was performed to identify patients who have undergone epilepsy surgical planning over 3 years with language localization using traditional methods of Wada testing, CSM, or task-based fMRI with calculated laterality index, as well as a 7-minute RS scan available without excessive motion or noise. We found the correlation between each subject's left and right Broca's region activity and each of 68 cortical regions.

Results: A group of nine patients with left-lateralized language were found to have greater voxel-wise correlations than a group of six patients with right-lateralized language between a left hemispheric Broca's region seed and the following six cortical regions: left inferior temporal, left lateral orbitofrontal, left pars triangularis, right lateral orbitofrontal, right pars orbitalis and right superior frontal regions.

Conclusions: In a cohort of children with epilepsy, we found that patients with left- and right-hemispheric language lateralization have different RS networks.