AUDITORY-PERCEPTION DISORDERS DUE TO BILA TERAL CORTICAL DAMAGE - AN ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY STUDY

A 78-year-oid right handed man with a past history of atrial fibrillat ion developed in November 1994, a slight right hemiparesis with aphasi a which cleared over one month. Head CT scan showed a left middle cere bral artery infarct involving the posterior part oi the temporal lobe. in September 1995, a second stroke occurred. Head CT scan revealed a recent right middle cerebral artery infarct within the posterior part of temporal cortex. Auditory agnosia was diagnosed. Auditory evoked po tentials recording showed bilateral dysfunction of central auditory pa thways mainly over the right hemisphere. Clinical data and evoked pote ntials suggest that auditory agnosia might be related to the right tem poral lobe damage. This later is involved in linguistic processes as s uggested by positron emission tomography studies.