Brain/language relationships identified with diffusion and perfusion MRI: Clinical applications in neurology and neurosurgery.

Diffusion and perfusion MRI have contributed to stroke management by identifying patients with tissue "at risk" for further damage in acute stroke. However, the potential usefulness of these imaging modalities, along with diffusion tensor imaging, can be expanded by using these imaging techniques with concurrent assessment of language and other cognitive skills to identify the specific cognitive deficits that are associated with diffusion and perfusion abnormalities in particular brain regions. This paper illustrates how this combined behavioral and imaging methodology can yield information that is useful for predicting specific positive effects of intervention to restore blood flow in hypoperfused regions of brain identified with perfusion MRI, and for predicting negative effects of resection of particular brain regions or fiber bundles. Such data allow decisions about neurological and neurosurgical interventions to be based on specific risks and benefits in terms of functional consequences.