CORTICAL ORGANIZATION IN ADULTHOOD IS MODIFIED BY NEONATAL INFARCT - A CASE-STUDY

PURPOSE: To assess anomalous cortical organization of somatosensory fu nction in a 23-year-old man who had had a neonatal infarct involving t he left middle cerebral artery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The infarct des troyed the primary and secondary somatosensory areas of the subject's left hemisphere but caused only mild perturbation of somatosensation o n the right side of his body. With magnetic source imaging, the author s integrated magnetoencephalographic data with magnetic resonance imag ing data to create magnetic source localization images that showed the mapping between brain function and structure. RESULTS: Electrical sti mulation of the right median nerve evoked activity in two nontradition al areas: (a) an intact region of the left inferior temporal gyrus and (b) the ipsilateral right medial parietal cortex. CONCLUSION: These d ata suggest that bilateral neural reorganization can be induced by uni lateral neonatal damage.