Mapping nouns and finite verbs in left hemisphere tumors: a direct electrical stimulation study

ABSTRACT

Neurosurgical mapping studies with nouns and finite verbs are scarce and subcortical data are nonexistent. We used a new task that uses finite verbs in six Italian-speaking patients with gliomas in the left language-dominant hemisphere. Language-relevant positive areas were detected only with nouns in four patients, with both tasks yet in distinct cortical areas in one patient, and only with finite verbs in another patient. Positive areas and types of errors varied across participants. Finite verbs provide complementary information to nouns, and permit more accurate mapping of language production when nouns are unaffected by electrical stimulation.

KEYWORDS:

• Direct electrical stimulation
• glioma
• language mapping
• verb
• noun

Acknowledgments

We thank Vânia de Aguiar and Giovanna Cappelletti for help in different stages of this project.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest concerning the materials or methods used in this study or the findings reported in this paper.

Notes

1. This utterance is grammatical in Italian.

Additional information

Funding

Funding was provided by Provincia Autonoma di Trento (PAT) and Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto (CaRiTRO) to GM; by the Erasmus Mundus PhD Program IDEALAB (Macquarie University, Newcastle University, University of Groningen, University of Trento and University of Potsdam) to AR (agreement number 2014-0025; cohort 2012-2015); and by the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) to AR.