Determination of crossed language dominance: dissociation of language lateralization within the temporoparietal cortex
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Assessment of Cerebral Lateralization in Children using Functional Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound (fTCD)
Published on: September 27, 2010
Andreas Jansen1, Stephanie Müller, Johannes Bedenbender
1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany. jansena@med.uni-marburg.de
Abstract:
'Crossed language dominance' is a rare form of language lateralization, characterized by a dissociation of anterior and posterior language regions. We present the case of a healthy subject whose language lateralization pattern, as assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging, is reliably characterized as crossed language dominance based on a word generation task, but typical left-lateralized when a semantic decision task is applied. A single language task is therefore not sufficient to characterize language lateralization, at least not for subjects with rare forms of language dominance. In the pre-surgical diagnostic of language lateralization, several language tasks tapping into different aspects of language functions should be applied.
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