Sign language aphasia in a non-deaf-mute.
A 19-year-old left-handed man, who was raised by deaf-mute parents and learned sign language concurrently with normal speech, sustained a traumatic cerebral contusion. He subsequently had no evidence of apraxic, visual-spatial, or sensorimotor deficits of the left limbs with which he was accustomed to use signs. Globally aphasic with a dense right hemiparesis, he initially recovered sign language to a greater degree than spoken language with a reversal on follow-up observations. Receptive skills improved to a greater degree than expressive skills with no marked difference between verbal and sign language, but with natural signs better preserved than finger spelling.
D000328:Adult; D001037:Aphasia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005385:Fingers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008369:Manual Communication; D009043:Motor Activity; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012813:Sign Language