title: Is a lone right hemisphere enough? Neurolinguistic architecture in a case with a very early left hemispherectomy.
abstract: We studied the linguistic profile and neurolinguistic organization of a 14-year-old adolescent (EB) who underwent a left hemispherectomy at the age of 2.5 years. After initial aphasia, his language skills recovered within 2 years, with the exception of some word finding problems. Over the years, the neuropsychological assessments showed that EB's language was near-to-normal, with the exception of lexical competence, which lagged slightly behind for both auditory and written language. Moreover, EB's accuracy and speed in both reading and writing words and non-words were within the normal range, whereas difficulties emerged in reading loan words and in tasks with homophones. EB's functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) patterns for several linguistic and metalinguistic tasks were similar to those observed in the dominant hemisphere of controls, suggesting that his language network conforms to a left-like linguistic neural blueprint. However, a stronger frontal recruitment suggests that linguistic tasks are more demanding for him. Finally, no specific reading activation was found in EB's occipitotemporal region, a finding consistent with the surface dyslexia-like behavioral pattern of the patient. While a lone right hemisphere may not be sufficient to guarantee full blown linguistic competences after early hemispherectomy, EB's behavioral and fMRI patterns suggest that his lone right hemisphere followed a left-like blueprint of the linguistic network.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Danelli
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cossu
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berlingeri
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bottini
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sberna
authors.forename: Eraldo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Paulesu
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D001037:Aphasia / Q000601:surgery; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D007839:Functional Laterality; D038421:Hemispherectomy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011932:Reading; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D014825:Vocabulary
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen