[Study of the functional reorganisation of language in a patient with perinatal insult in the left hemisphere].
BACKGROUND
The functional reorganisation of language in the presence of early insults to the left hemisphere often gives rise to the so-called crowding hypothesis, which involves better performance in linguistic tasks than in non-verbal ones. This paper reports the first magnetoencephalography study in which it was possible to identify the right-side language-receptive areas in a patient with widespread left perinatal insult, together with a neuropsychological pattern which matches that offered by the crowding phenomenon.


METHODS
A 34-year-old male who visited our centre for an epilepsy study. Up to the age of 18 years he had occasionally suffered from generalised seizures and, more frequently, partial seizures. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain revealed a porencephalic cyst in the temporoparietal region of the left hemisphere, which was possibly related to perinatal ischaemia.


CONCLUSIONS
The magnetoencephalography showed a clear pattern of right laterality during a linguistic processing task. Furthermore, the patient's neurocognitive profile showed visuoperceptual deficits, with relatively preserved verbal functioning, in agreement with other cases that support the existence of the crowding phenomenon.
Centro de Magnetoencefalografía, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Avda.Complutense, s/n. Pabellón 8. E-28040 Madrid, España. elenaguia@hotmail.com
E
E
de la Guía-Jiménez
D
D
del Río
L
L
González-Sanz
F
F
Maestú
T
T
Ortiz
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000328:Adult; D002545:Brain Ischemia; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests