A RECONSIDERATION OF BILATERAL LANGUAGE REPRESENTATION BASED ON THE INTRACAROTID AMOBARBITAL PROCEDURE

Hemispheric language dominance was established for 368 epilepsy surger y candidates based on results of objective language performance during the intracarotid amobarbital procedure. Eighty-three percent of patie nts were found to be left hemisphere dominant, while six percent were right dominant, and eleven percent demonstrated some degree of bilater al language representation. Bilateral patients were grouped according to modality-specific patterns of language performance in each hemisphe re, with a majority demonstrating left hemisphere superiority in overa ll language processing. Variables affecting atypical language developm ent are reviewed and results are considered in the context of previous research. (C) 1997 Academic Press.