Cerebral Reorganization in Children with Congenital Hemiplegia: Evidence from the Dichotic Listening Test

Abstract

Abstract The best evidence of cerebral reorganization in humans includes the amazingly well-spared language functions after early left-sided brain lesions. Although clinical and experimental studies have revealed that language functions are lateralized to the left hemisphere and nonverbal, visuospatial functions are controlled by the right hemisphere (Bogen, 1969, 1985; Rasmussen & Milner, 1977; Sperry, 1974), language functions may shift to the right intact hemisphere after an early left-sided brain lesion (e.g., Milner, 1974). It has been confirmed that language functions are generally spared in cases of early unilateral brain lesions regardless of the cause or location of the lesion (Aram & Eisele, 1992; Dennis & Whitaker, 1977). However, nonverbal functions are generally impaired regardless of the location of the lesion (LeVere et al., 1988; Nass et al., 1989).