Impacto de las lesiones del hemisferio derecho sobre las habilidades lingüísticas: perspectivas teórica y clínica

Abstract

A lesion of the right hemisphere of right-handers can result in verbal communication impairments. The recent development of theoretical frameworks with regard to discourse and pragmatic abilities, among others, now allows us to recognize and describe these impairments. To offer an overview of the verbal communication deficits that can be found in right-hemisphere-damaged individuals. These deficits can interfere, at different levels, with prosody, the semantic processing of words and discourse and pragmatic abilities. Such impairments appear to be present in about half of right-hemisphere-damaged patients and, when present, can result in different clinical profiles. These deficits raise the question of their labeling and their relationship with aphasia. Given the evolution of the concept of language and the universal definition of aphasia, it is proposed that these deficits correspond to another manifestation of aphasia, thus challenging the idea that they are of a 'non-aphasic' nature.