Dichotic listening in a child with a cerebral lesion: the "paradoxical" ipsilateral ear deficit

Behavioral testing is reported for a child with a deep, left cerebral lesion that displaced the third ventricle across midline and compressed and elevated the lateral ventricle, presumably disrupting interhemispheric auditory pathways. The onset of the lesion was before 2 1/2 years of age. Cognitive screening tests indicated normal nonverbal (visual perceptual) and semantic (confrontation naming) abilities, but impaired syntactic skills. Audiological testing showed an isolated ipsilateral ear abnormality on dichotic testing only. All other audiological results, including monotic testing with the same speech materials, were normal. Results were comparable to findings in adults with similar lesions.