One brain scan may map both speech and movement areas before surgery
Original title: Spatially constrained ICA from a language task enables sensorimotor network extraction in patients with space-occupying brain lesions.
How far along is this research?
- Lab cells
- Animals
- Review
- Tested in people
This was tested in people. That is the most reliable kind of research we share.
This was a look back at scans from people already having surgery, and it still needs more testing before doctors would use it.
The short version
A scan that checks speech areas may also show movement areas, so people may need fewer scans before brain surgery.
What was studied. Researchers looked back at brain scans from 40 people who were getting ready for surgery for a growth in the brain. Each person did a word task and a hand movement task in the scanner. The team tested whether the word task scan by itself could also show the brain's movement areas.
What they found. The movement areas could be pulled out of the word task scan in every one of the 40 people. Compared with the hand movement scan, the word task maps picked up 78% of the movement areas. They correctly left out 75% of the areas that were not part of the movement network. The two maps only lined up 36% of the time overall.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: If this holds up, a person may spend less time in the scanner before brain surgery. One task could give the surgical team information about both speech and movement. That information would be added to the other tests the team already uses, not used on its own.
What it doesn't mean: This is not a treatment and it is not a cure. It is an early test of an idea, done by looking back at scans that were already taken. The overlap between the two maps was low, so this cannot replace the movement scan today. The authors say it still needs to be checked against direct testing during surgery and in larger groups before it becomes normal care.
Source: PubMed, August 12, 2026 · Read the original
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