CORTICAL STIMULATION ELICITS REGIONAL DISTINCTIONS IN AUDITORY AND VISUAL NAMING

We used electrical stimulation mapping to compare performance on audit ory and visual naming tasks in inferotemporal, lateral temporal, front al, and parietal cortex in 8 temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients wit h subdural electrodes placed for preoperative language localization. P erformance on auditory responsive naming (ARN) and visual confrontatio n naming (VCN) was best during stimulation of parietal cortex and was equally impaired during stimulation of inferotemporal and frontal cort ex. In contrast, ARN performance was significantly poorer than VCN per formance during stimulation of anterior and posterior lateral temporal cortex. In most patients, stimulation of inferotemporal cortex at rel atively low stimulus intensities (less than or equal to 5 mA) during e ither ARN or VCN elicited reproducible errors in which patients could describe, gesture, spell, or draw, but not name, in response to audito ry or visual cues. Inferotemporal and frontal cortex appear to be mult imodality language regions distinct from lateral temporal cortex.