Dichotic listening in an aphasic male patient after a subcortical hemorrhage in the left fronto-parietal region.
Dichotic listening (DL) performance to consonant-vowel (CV) syllables is reported in an aphasic right-handed male patient. The patient suffered initially from a complete expressive aphasia after an intracerebral hemorrhage caused by the rupture of an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) underlying Broca's area. The patient was tested three times with DL; one week after the hemorrhage, five weeks after, and after at about 6 months. At the first test he could not speak, but understood well. At the second test he uttered one-syllable words, and could answer "yes" and "no" to questions. At the third test he could speak whole sentences, although slow and "stutter-like." Dichotic listening performance showed an almost perfect match with speech recovery. At the first test he showed a left ear advantage which changed to no ear advantage at the second test, and to a right ear advantage at the third test. The overall performance was markedly reduced at the first test, but improved at the following test. It is concluded that dichotic listening may be a valid complement to traditional language assessment procedures after unilateral brain lesions.
Hugdahl
K
K
Department of Somatic Psychology, University of Bergen, Haukeland Hospital, Norway.
Wester
K
K
Asbjørnsen
A
A
D000328:Adult; D001037:Aphasia / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002533:Cerebral Angiography; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D002538:Intracranial Arteriovenous Malformations / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D012422:Rupture, Spontaneous; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed