The functional characteristics of the left inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) remain unclear. The present study describes a case of a right-handed 74-year-old woman with a brain tumor who showed marked deterioration in object naming ability after invasion of the tumor into the medial region of the left posterior (middle and inferior) temporal lobe just beside the atrium of the lateral ventricle. Diffusion tensor imaging showed possible interruption of the left ILF after invasion of tumor at this site. By contrast, the left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) remained intact after invasion of tumor, and the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF) was already disrupted prior to tumor invasion. These observations indicate that intact ILF function may be required for object naming ability.
Function of the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), which connects the anterior temporal and occipital lobes, has not been clearly demonstrated in the human brain. A 47-year-old woman with visual memory disturbance as demonstrated by the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised presented with possible brain tumor in the right temporal lobe. Diffusion tensor imaging showed partial disconnection of the right ILF, indicating that function of the ILF is highly involved in visual memory.
The anatomic localization of brain functions can be characterized via diffusion tensor imaging in patients with brain tumors and neurological symptoms. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the function of the ventral, arcuate fasciculus (AF) and the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF)-related language pathways using these techniques by analyzing 9 patients treated in our hospital between 2007 and 2011. In cases 1-3, the left ventral pathways, namely, the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, uncinate fasciculus or inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, were mainly damaged, and the common dysfunction experienced by these patients was a deficit in object naming. In cases 4-6, the left SLF was mainly damaged, and the common deficit was dysgraphia. In cases 7-9, the left AF was mainly damaged, and almost all language functions related to phonology were abnormal. These results suggest that the left ventral, AF and SLF-related pathways are closely related to visual, auditory and hand-related language function, respectively.
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