Category-Specific Naming and Recognition in Epilepsy

描述(由申请人提供)： 我们相信，对在手术前后进行了充分研究的颞叶癫痫(TLE)患者的特定类别识别和命名能力的彻底检查可以解决存在的关于神经基础和类别特定信息组织的不一致。通过专门设计的神经认知测试、定量容量磁共振成像和术中语言评估，对手术前后特定类别的功能进行系统的探索，将使我们能够确定TL位置、潜在的中介变量(例如，非典型命名位置、癫痫持续时间)和表现出类别特定缺陷的患者的命名/识别功能障碍之间的关系。我们使用Damasio的语义记忆“中介/汇聚区”模型作为启发式框架，以产生可检验的假设来探索这些缺陷。基于这一模型，人们会认为在目标语切除后，特定类别的缺陷通常会发生，而我们实验室获得的初步数据支持这一预测。这些缺陷经常被常用的命名方法遗漏，尽管有证据表明它们损害了神经认知和功能状态。阐明这些结构将导致更精确的语义记忆模型，并可能揭示一些接受TL切除的患者有经历显著的类别特定缺陷的风险。这些发现可能会导致手术技术的改变和手术候选人的选择，并有助于改善神经认知结果。PI是威斯康星州大学神经病学系的一名神经心理学家/助理教授，他可以利用一个完善的癫痫项目的资源和患者群体。这项提议如果得到资助，将使他能够发展必要的技能，使他的神经心理学培训与神经成像和相关技术的进步相结合，从而努力更准确地研究大脑与行为的关系，同时确立他作为独立临床科学家的地位。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We believe that a thorough examination of category-specific recognition and naming abilities in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients who have been well-studied before and after respective surgery can resolve inconsistencies that exist regarding the neural substrates and organization of category-specific information. Systematic exploration of category-specific functions both pre- and postoperatively with specially designed neurocognitive tests, quantitative volumetric MRI, and intraoperative language assessment will allow us to determine the relationship between TL sites, potential mediating variables (e.g., atypical naming sites, epilepsy duration), and the naming/recognition functions disturbed in patients exhibiting category specific deficits. We have employed Damasio's "mediational/convergence zone" model of semantic memory as a heuristic framework to generate testable hypotheses for exploring these deficits. Based on this model, one would expect category-specific deficits to routinely occur following TL resections, and preliminary data obtained in our lab support this prediction. These deficits are frequently missed by commonly employed naming measures, despite evidence that they compromise neurocognitive and functional status. Elucidating these constructs will lead to more precise models of semantic memory, and may reveal that some patients undergoing TL resection are at risk for experiencing significant category-specific deficits. Such findings could lead to changes in surgical technique and the selection of surgical candidates, and contribute to improvements in neurocognitive outcome. The PI, who serves as a neuropsychologist/Assistant Professor in the UW Department of Neurology, can draw upon the resources and patient population of a well established epilepsy program. This proposal, if funded, would enable him to develop the necessary skills to mesh his neuropsychological training with advances in neuroimaging and related technologies in an effort to more precisely study brain-behavior relationships, while establishing him as an independent clinician scientist.