Learning to read without a left occipital lobe: right-hemispheric shift of visual word form area.
Using anatomical and functional magnetic resonance imaging, we studied the pattern of brain lateralization during spoken and written language tasks, in an 11-year-old girl who underwent a left occipitotemporal resection for a Sturge-Weber angioma at the age of 4 years, that is, after the development of speech but before the acquisition of reading. We observed a selective and successful shift to the right hemisphere of the visual component of reading, particularly the Visual Word Form Area, whereas the verbal components remained strongly left-lateralized. This emphasizes the potential utility of a precise functional and developmental cartography of language for the surgical treatment of focal brain lesions in children.
Cohen
Laurent
L
Institut de Neurologie, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, AP-HP, Paris, France. laurent.cohen@psl.ap-hop-paris.fr
Lehéricy
Stéphane
S
Henry
Carole
C
Bourgeois
Marie
M
Larroque
Christine
C
Sainte-Rose
Christian
C
Dehaene
Stanislas
S
Hertz-Pannier
Lucie
L
D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011932:Reading; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology