1. Recovering two languages with the right hemisphere.
- Author
-
Marini, Andrea, Galetto, Valentina, Tatu, Karina, Duca, Sergio, Geminiani, Giuliano, Sacco, Katiuscia, and Zettin, Marina
- Subjects
- *
DIAGNOSIS of aphasia , *LANGUAGE & languages , *BRAIN imaging , *BRAIN injuries , *FUNCTIONAL magnetic resonance imaging , *LONGITUDINAL method , *APHASIA , *BRAIN mapping , *CEREBRAL dominance , *COGNITION , *CONVALESCENCE , *LINGUISTICS , *MAGNETIC resonance imaging , *MULTILINGUALISM , *ATROPHY , *TEMPORAL lobe , *PHYSIOLOGY - Abstract
Converging evidence suggests that the right hemisphere (RH) plays an important role in language recovery from aphasia after a left hemisphere (LH) lesion. In this longitudinal study we describe the neurological, cognitive, and linguistic profile of A.C., a bilingual who, after a severe traumatic brain injury, developed a form of fluent aphasia that affected his two languages (i.e., Romanian and Italian). The trauma-induced parenchymal atrophy led to an exceptional ventricular dilation that, gradually, affected the whole left hemisphere. A.C. is now recovering both languages relying only on his right hemisphere. An fMRI experiment employing a bilingual covert verb generation task documented the involvement of the right middle temporal gyrus in processes of lexical selection and access. This case supports the hypothesis that the RH plays a role in language recovery from aphasia when the LH has suffered massive lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF