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

Nonvisual spatial navigation functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) may help clinicians determine memory lateralization in blind individuals with refractory mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). We report on an exceptional case of a congenitally blind woman with late-onset left MTLE undergoing...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neurocase 2015-01, Vol.21 (6), p.748-752
Main Authors: Toller, Gianina, Adhimoolam, Babu, Grunwald, Thomas, Huppertz, Hans-Jürgen, König, Kristina, Jokeit, Hennric
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amnesia
Blindness
Blindness - complications
Blindness - congenital
Blindness - psychology
Brain - physiopathology
congenital blindness
Dominance, Cerebral
Epilepsy
Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - complications
Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - diagnosis
Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - physiopathology
Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - psychology
Female
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Hemispheric laterality
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Memory
Mental Recall - physiology
mesial temporal lobe epilepsy
Middle Aged
Navigation behavior
Neuroimaging
Risk assessment
Spatial Navigation - physiology
spatial navigation fMRI
Temporal lobe
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Summary:Nonvisual spatial navigation functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) may help clinicians determine memory lateralization in blind individuals with refractory mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). 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.
ISSN:1355-4794
1465-3656
1362-4970
DOI:10.1080/13554794.2014.986136