Linguistic and non-linguistic abilities in a patient with early left hemispherectomy

A patient who underwent early removal of the left hemisphere because of Stu rge-Weber syndrome was submitted to detailed linguistic and visuospatial ba tteries. The performances were compared to performances of subjects matched for age, education and IQ, but without focal cerebral lesions. Language wa s mildly impaired but to the same extent as in IQ controls. On the contrary , visuospatial abilities were clearly worse than in IQ controls, and the mo st preserved visuospatial abilities seemed to be the less sophisticated one s. Non literal comprehension of language, a function generally attributed t o the right hemisphere, was intact. This same pattern, that is, preservatio n of language and impairment of visuospatial abilities, also seems to occur in subjects who have undergone surgical removal of the right hemisphere; i n other words, the cognitive pattern seems the same regardless of which hem isphere is removed. These observations suggest that no matter which hemisph ere is removed, functional reorganisation follows a hierarchical criterion which privileges the linguistic function, and the visuospatial functions mo st essential for independent survival. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All r ights reserved.