Language Functional Reorganization in Subcortical Infarction Patients

Post stroke aphasia (PSA) is one of the most frequently happened deficiency of stoke, affecting speaking,comprehension, writing and reading of language. Generally, PSA is commonly seen in cortical damage, but in recent years it has been found that subcortical injury is also an important cause of PSA, which is called subcortical aphasia. Using fMRI technology, the investigators aim to investigate the language function of patients with subcortical cerebral infarction at different stages of recovery , and explored the mechanism of post-injury language reorganization in the brain. The investigators recruited 60 first-episode acute cerebral infarction patients with one-side lesion in subcortical white matter (40 with left injury and 20with right injury) and 20 health volunteers. All participants are right-handed, and screened with MMSE, HAMD and HAMA to exclude cases of psychosis, post-stroke dementia and depression. Each participant was arranged to have three test sessions at different stages after the infarction (T1:within 3 days after onset of the stroke ; T2:28 ±3days after onset; T3: 90±3days after onset), with fMRI and Western aphasia battery (WAB) in each session. The purpose of this study is to explore the pathogenesis of subcortical aphasia, and to understand the dynamic reorganization of language network during the recovery of language function.