Right hemisphere restitution of language and memory functions in right hemisphere language-dominant patients with...

Concomitant with the right hemispheric restitution of language functions after early left hemisphere lesions, suppression effects on originally right hemispheric visuospatial/constructional functions have repeatedly been reported. The present study evaluated this issue in 10 right hemisphere language-dominant patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Left hemisphere language-dominant patients with left (n = 10) or right (n = 10) temporal lobe epilepsy served as controls. The following results were obtained: in all but one of the right dominant patients, left hemisphere lesions, left hemisphere foci and histories of early left brain damage indicated that secondary language transfer rather than a genetically determination is the more likely cause of the right hemisphere dominance. Despite this transfer, the language functions (comprehension, fluency, reasoning) of the right dominant patients remained significantly impaired. Language generally appeared to be better preserved in patients with an onset of epilepsy before the third year of life or a circumscribed left hemisphere lesion. No suppression effects could be detected on the level of complex cortical language and non-language functions. In contrast, on the level of temporo-limbic memory functions, verbal learning and recognition were left largely intact, albeit mostly at the expense of visuo-spatial learning and memory. The findings of the study thus indicate that the cerebral plasticity of the right hemisphere differs according to the extent of the left-hemisphere lesion, the onset of structural/functional damage and the complexity of the functions requiring restitution. Assuming that language and memory represent neocortical and palaeocortical functions, respectively, the restitution process is seemingly governed by their status in a phylogenetically determined hierarchy of functional importance.