Selective crossed aphasia in a trilingual aphasic patient followed by reciprocal antagonism

After surgical removal of a parasitic cyst in the right prerolandic area, an educated 25-year-old male exhibited obvious deficits in one of his three languages (Gujarati), with no measurable deficits in the other two (French and Malagasy). The patient spoke all three languages fluently before the operation. Gujarati and Malagasy had been acquired in infancy. Gujarati was the language of his parents and relatives. Malagasy the language of the local population. All the patient's schooling had been in French, the only language in which he was literate. He used French daily at work. Since the acquisition history for Gujarati and Malagasy was identical, while French had been acquired in a different context, one would have predicted, on the basis of W. Lambert and S. Fillenbaum's (1959, Canadian Journal of Psychology, 13, 28-34) hypothesis, that Gujarati and Malagasy should have been equally affected, with French possibly differently so. However, 8 months postoperatively, the patient had regained control of Gujarati, while Malagasy had deteriorated considerably, and his French remained unimpaired. Two years later, the patient had recovered full use of his three languages.