Characteristics of verbal semantic impairment in left hemisphere epilepsy

Fifty-two patients with partial epilepsy of left (n = 30) or right (n = 22) hemisphere origin were compared with 23 healthy subjects to explore the characteristics and mechanisms of verbal semantic deficits. Picture Naming, Picture Pointing, and the Semantic Questionnaire assessed semantic retrieval, comprehension, and judgment, respectively. In comparison with the controls and right hemisphere patients, the left hemisphere patients showed impairments on Picture Naming and the Semantic Questionnaire. On Picture Naming, the left hemisphere patients made significant omissions and intracategorical errors; on the Semantic Questionnaire, they made errors at superordinate and subordinate levels of information, they made more errors in relation to living than nonliving things, and there were significant associations between their Picture Naming and Semantic Questionnaire scores. In this population, the mixed profiles of semantic deficits suggests the coexistence of altered retrieval and information loss.