Recovery from Aphasia: Is the Right Hemisphere a Cure or a Crutch?
Recovery from Aphasia: Is the Right Hemisphere a Cure or a Crutch?
Aphasia is a kind of language disorder, caused by damage to the left hemisphere of the brain, which presents as an inability to comprehend or formulate language structure. This chapter explores how the right hemisphere, which is capable of understanding the single word but fails to put words together, could aid in the recovery from aphasic deficits. Several cases and studies indicate that the right hemisphere could, in a few instances, play a crucial role in language recovery, but that that recovery could be restricted to improved comprehension and some single words or short phrases. Brain imaging techniques also show activation of the right hemisphere during many language-related tasks, but there still remains doubt as to whether the right hemisphere activation could aid in language recovery.
Keywords: aphasia, brain, hemispheres, left hemisphere, right hemisphere, language recovery, brain imaging techniques
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