Objective: The goal of this study was to explore the relationship between language and memory lateralization in patients with epilepsy undergoing the intracarotid amobarbital procedure.
Methods: In 386 patients, language lateralization and memory lateralization as determined by laterality index (LI) were correlated with each other.
Results: Language lateralization and memory lateralization were positively correlated (r=0.34, P<0.01). Correlations differed depending on the presence and type of lesion (chi(2)=7.98, P<0.05). LIs correlated significantly higher (z=2.82, P<0.05) in patients with cortical dysplasia (n=41, r=0.61, P<0.01) compared with the group without lesions (n=90, r=0.16, P>0.05), with patients with hippocampal sclerosis falling between these two groups. Both memory (P<0.01) and language (P<0.01) LIs were higher in right- compared with left-sided lesions.
Conclusion: Correlation of language and memory is more pronounced in patients with structural lesions as compared with patients without lesions on MRI.