Higher Brain Function Research
Online ISSN : 1880-6554
Print ISSN : 1348-4818
ISSN-L : 1348-4818
Original article
Identification of the specific area to one language and the common area during cortical mapping under awake craniotomy in bilingual patient with brain tumor
Miyako FutamuraItsuko KobaSatoshi MaesawaMasazumi FujiiToshihiko Wakabayashi
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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2015 Volume 35 Issue 4 Pages 356-362

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Abstract

  Backgrounds: There are various studies for the language areas in bilingual cases by neuroimaging or cortical mapping with direct stimulation. However, it is still unclear about the topography of functional cortices for each language. We report a bilingual patient in this article, who underwent brain tumor removal under awake craniotomy with language mapping. The results of mapping were suggestive of the roles for the language-specific areas and the common areas in bilingual patients.
  Case: A 48 year-old man, who was born in Brazil, and has been in Japan for 23 years, suffered from recurrent glioma in the left frontal lobe. Tumor removal was performed under awake craniotomy with language mapping. His native language was Portuguese, but Japanese was more frequently used in his daily life. Intraoperatively, language mapping showed positive responses to both Japanese and Portuguese in the triangle part of the inferior frontal gyrus, consistent with Brocaʼs area. The specific area was seen only to Portuguese in the part of the middle frontal gyrus. No specific area was seen to Japanese. The tumor was gross-totally removed, preserving those functional cortices. Neurological condition was not deteriorated postoperatively.
  Discussion and Conclusions: In this study, we identified the language-specific area to Portuguese, and the common area to both Portuguese and Japanese. Although Portuguese was native tongue for this patient, its responded-areas showed wider spread than those of Japanese. Moreover, the location of Portuguese-specific area identified during mapping was the middle frontal lobe, which was unusual as Brocaʼs area. This case suggests that the language functional cortices in bilingual cases are various, and when language mapping is performed to preserve language function in bilingual patients, not only the one language but also the other should be examined in various locations.

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© 2015 by Japan Society for Higher Brain Dysfunction
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