[The right cerebral hemisphere]

An attempt is made to delineate typical clinical syndromes in the light of four selected patients with lesions in different regions of the right hemisphere. For higher cortical functions of the right hemisphere, as in the rest of the central nervous system, the locus of the lesion is critical for the nature of the deficit. Comparisons of damage to homologous areas in the contralateral left hemisphere with those in the right suggest that the functions of the right hemisphere are not subordinate to those of the left but are complementary and work in coordination with dominant hemisphere functions. In addition to dominance for spatial functions, the tasks of the right hemisphere are to recognize, evaluate, and react to non-verbal signals such as emotions, facial expressions, gestures and intentional modulation of speech. Impairment of these functions after right hemisphere damage shows that such compromised behaviors can frequently lead to serious social consequences.