Septo-optic dysplasia (SOD) is a rare disorder associated with optic nerve hypoplasia, pituitary abnormalities and agenesis/dysgenesis of midline brain structures including the septum pellucidum and corpus callosum. Though sometimes associated with drug-resistant epilepsy, this association has not been well studied. We report six SOD patients with associated malformation of cortical development...

A patient with Rasmussen's encephalitis underwent a right central resection at the age of 6 as a treatment for status epilepticus. She became seizure free, but suffered a left hemiplegia which improved so that she could walk. Because of the recurrence of seizures an enlargement of the resection to a hemispherectomy was carried out 17 years after the first operation. Various examinations, includ...

Hemimegalencephaly, a congenital brain malformation typically characterized by enlargement of one hemisphere, is frequently associated with intractable epilepsy. The authors report a case of a 12-month-old girl with hemimegalencephaly who underwent semiurgent hemispherectomy because of rapidly escalating seizures, arrested development, and associated encephalopathy. The brain tissue was examine...

Severe aphasia, adult left hemispherectomy, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS), and other neurological disorders have in common an increased use of swearwords. There are shared linguistic features in common across these language behaviors, as well as important differences. We explore the nature of swearing in normal human communication, and then compare the clinical presentations of selective...

Rasmussen encephalitis is a chronic, progressive inflammation of the brain of unknown origin. Early diagnosis and treatment with immunoactive agents and/or hemispherectomy are sought to prevent the progressive cognitive decline that accompanies this disease. Combined anatomic and functional neuroimaging may serve to focus the diagnostic workup and to hasten brain biopsy for definitive diagnosis...