title: Lateralization of cognitive functions after stroke in childhood.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A child's brain shows a remarkable ability to recover from adverse events such as stroke. Language functions recover particularly well, while visuo-spatial skills are more affected by brain damage, regardless of its localization. This study investigated the lateralization of language and visual search after childhood stroke.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten patients with unilateral stroke (aged 10-19 years, five left-, five right-sided lesion) and 20 healthy controls (aged 8-20 years) completed a neuropsychological test battery and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) intended to activate predominantly right (visual search) and left-sided functional networks (language).
  
  
  RESULTS
  After stroke, patients demonstrated atypical lateralization of visual search functions (8/10 patients, left lateralization) more often than that of language (4/10 patients, right lateralization). There was a dissociation between the lateralization of productive and semantic language (4/10 patients, 1/20 controls) and between the lateralization of simple and complex visual search (3/10 patients, 3/20 controls). In patients, atypical contralateral activations occurred in the same areas that showed decreasing activation during development in healthy participants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The lateralization of functions depends upon the cognitive function measured. Dissociation between the lateralization of different language or visual search tasks can occur.
authors.affiliation: Paediatric Neurology, University Children's Hospital, Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland. regula@everts.ch
authors.forename: Regula
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Everts
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lidzba
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wilke
authors.forename: Claus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kiefer
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wingeier
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schroth
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Perrig
authors.forename: Maja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Steinlin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D055815:Young Adult