This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 34/12/2906    most recent 01.STR.0000103833.70778.20v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Heiss, W.-D. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Heiss, W.-D. Pubmed/NCBI databases Medline Plus Health Information Aphasia

(Stroke. 2003;34:2906.)
© 2003 American Heart Association, Inc.

Original Contributions

Editorial Comment—Key Role of the Superior Temporal Gyrus for Language Performance and Recovery From Aphasia

Max-Planck-Institut für neurologische Forschung, Neurologische Universitätsklinik, Köln, Germany

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

The plasticity of functional networks is an intriguing phenomenon that plays a role in learning and is important for recovery after brain damage. Activation studies by PET and functional MRI (fMRI) can be used to study neuroplasticity noninvasively and have opened new ways to understand the interaction within neural networks in the performance of complex tasks and for achieving new skills, to detect changes in activation patterns induced by lesions, and to follow compensatory mechanisms in recovery. Cardebat et al¹ have used this concept to study activation of regional cerebral blood flow by PET during a word generation task in 8 stroke victims and compared the changes in the activation patterns in the chronic course with changes over time in healthy subjects. Whereas their data in the patient cohort add to longitudinal studies in poststroke aphasia, especially by extending the observation period over 1 year, the changes in activation patterns observed in healthy volunteers in relation to improved performance in language tasks are important as a basis for longitudinal studies in patients and indicate the ability of functional networks to minimize the workload for repeated and familiar tasks: It is the main finding of this study that with improved performance the extent of activation in normals is reduced, and the pattern is "normalized" in patients.

This study contributes important pieces to the puzzle of language performance and recovery after stroke, but it is quite difficult to compare the results with previous findings: The small group of patients included is rather . . . [Full Text of this Article]