Language and the cerebral hemispheres. Observations of verbal and nonverbal responses during 18 months following left ("dominant") hemisphrerectomy

Abstract

The only reported data of initial and later effects of left hemispherectomy for glioma were obtained in one patient who survived 2 years postoperatively. This report summarizes similar studies of another adult after removal of the left hemisphere and the subfalcial right frontal cortex invaded by a glioma, until death 18 months after surgery. Despite inclusion of a portion of the right frontal lobe in excision of the left hemisphere, initial language deficits were comparable, but until recurrence of the neoplasm, recovery of singing and language functions was more rapid and extensive than in the previously reported patient.