Aphasie transitoire survenue dans les suites d’un abord sous-temporal – Illustration de l’évolution des concepts neuroanatomiques fonctionnels du langage humain

Under the influence of recent advances in brain imaging, as well as perioperative functional assessment during awake brain surgery, the understanding of representation of language within the human brain is evolving. The classical associationist models are increasingly giving way to network concepts where specialised cortical subregions subserve different but related functions and interact via parallel, bidirectional white matter pathways. This may account for the anatomical infrastructure of higher cognitive functions, including verbal communication, more satisfactorily.
The adequacy of models of brain function is, by tradition and common sense, judged by clinical observation. In the following report, the usefulness of contemporary concepts of the functional anatomy of language are illustrated by the occurrence of severe speech dysfunction in the presence of a temporary basal temporal lesion, anatomically distant from the classical “language areas” of the brain.