[Activation of deficient right cerebral blood flow by language after global aphasia]

A 39-year old patient abruptly presented with global aphasia. Six years later a mild deficit of articulation and sentence comprehension persisted. A cerebral blood flow study showed that a) during verbal activations, the blood flow increased in the right hemisphere and decreased around the lesion in the left hemisphere; b) the activation was globally higher than in the control group. These data suggest that the right hemisphere plays a significant role in the recovery from aphasia in patients with severe left hemispheric lesions.