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Learning to read without a left occipital lobe: right-hemispheric shift of visual word form area
Laurent Cohen1, Stéphane Lehéricy, Carole Henry
1Institut de Neurologie, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, AP-HP, Paris, France. laurent.cohen@psl.ap-hop-paris.fr
Abstract:
Using anatomical and functional magnetic resonance imaging, we studied the pattern of brain lateralization during spoken and written language tasks, in an 11-year-old girl who underwent a left occipitotemporal resection for a Sturge-Weber angioma at the age of 4 years, that is, after the development of speech but before the acquisition of reading. We observed a selective and successful shift to the right hemisphere of the visual component of reading, particularly the Visual Word Form Area, whereas the verbal components remained strongly left-lateralized. This emphasizes the potential utility of a precise functional and developmental cartography of language for the surgical treatment of focal brain lesions in children.
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