Postencephalitic pure anomic aphasia: 2-year follow-up.

We report a patient with pure anomic aphasia following encephalitis. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed bilateral temporal lesions, and subsequent focal atrophy in the left anterior inferior temporal lobe. Over the course of a 2-year follow-up, the patient's naming difficulty persisted without other dysfunction of language or memory. These observations indicate a contribution of the left anterior inferior temporal region to object naming.