# Development of Culturally Appropriate Spanish Language Tests for Neuropsychological Assessment and Brain Mapping

> **NIH NIH R01** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2024 · $672,564

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Producing the right words while speaking is critical for social, academic, and occupational success. Word
finding or “naming” ability is highly dependent on dominant temporal lobe function, and is commonly impaired
after temporal lobe resection for seizure control. Thus, naming assessment plays multiple roles in the epilepsy
surgery evaluation: Accurate diagnosis of naming impairment implicates the left (i.e., dominant) temporal lobe
as the epileptogenic zone, and naming is the primary task used in electrical stimulation mapping (ESM) to
identify and spare essential language areas from resection to preserve naming postoperatively. Previously, we
enhanced the sensitivity and accuracy of both of these roles by expanding traditional visual object naming
assessment to include clinically relevant auditory-verbal naming, and by incorporating hallmark symptoms of
word finding difficulty in the performance metrics. However, these measures are available only in English, and
available Spanish measures are highly flawed. As a result, we are unable to provide the same level of care for
primary Spanish speakers or Spanish-English bilingual patients due to lack of appropriate tools and
techniques. This highlights an unacceptable racial/ethnic disparity in care in the context of an increasing
proportion of Spanish-English bilingual patients presenting for epilepsy surgery. We have already shown that
using English-only testing for bilingual patients may result in inaccurate dysfunction localization, potentially
confounding the surgery evaluation and leading to increased invasive procedures, or withholding of potentially
curative treatment. Additionally, limiting ESM to one language risks missing critical sites for the other,
potentially resulting in inadvertent removal of brain areas that are critical for the unmapped language. To
address this disparity of care, and advance our understanding of brain-language relations of bilingualism, we
will test Spanish-English bilinguals undergoing epilepsy surgery evaluation, capitalizing on unique diagnostic
studies that permit assessment of brain areas that are critical for bilingual functioning. Specifically, this project
will 1) develop and standardize linguistically appropriate Spanish auditory-verbal and visual naming measures
applicable across Spanish dialects, 2) validate these by testing whether Spanish naming performance better
lateralizes epilepsy-related dysfunction than English naming in bilingual patients with unilateral TLE, 3) utilize
these tools to a) tailor stimuli for ESM to identify critical first and second language brain sites, and b) elucidate
key factors that predict the presence and location of distinct unilingual vs co-localized, bilingual naming sites,
and 4) characterize postoperative Spanish and English naming one-year postoperatively. Results promise a
novel, linguistically appropriate Spanish language toolset for clinical and research use, more accurate Spanish
naming assessmen...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10752842
- **Project number:** 1R01NS130838-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** MARLA J HAMBERGER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $672,564
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-01-01 → 2028-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10752842

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10752842, Development of Culturally Appropriate Spanish Language Tests for Neuropsychological Assessment and Brain Mapping (1R01NS130838-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10752842. Licensed CC0.

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