Suggestive Evidence for an Involvement of the Right Hemisphere in the Recovery from Childhood Aphasia: A 3-Year Follow-Up Case Study

Abstract

We describe the case of an 11-year-old, previously healthy, pre-puberal, right-handed girl with acquired aphasia following an extensive cerebral hemorrhage into a left hemisphere brain tumor. A 3-year follow-up evaluation of the girl's communicative performance showed an incomplete recovery of linguistic abilities with a good recovery of comprehensive components, but persisting severe impairment in expressive language. At the end of the follow-up period, with the aim of assessing the lateralization of some linguistic abilities, we carried out an experimental investigation using tachistoscopic reading and object naming tests along with a dichotic listening test. All these tests showed a clear left field/left ear—right hemisphere advantage. We discuss both clinical and experimental results with regard to implications for the linguistic abilities of the right hemisphere in late versus early childhood and its interaction with aetiology in the recovery from acquired childhood aphasia. We wish to thank P. for her unwavering patience throughout testing, and M. Veronese for his help with preparing the experimental stimuli and the figures. The financial contribution of the Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca is also gratefully acknowledged.