Early left periventricular brain lesions induce right hemispheric organization of speech

Right-hemispheric organization of speech has been observed following early left-sided brain lesions involving the language cortex. The authors studied speech organization in hemiparetic patients with pre-and. perinatally acqu ired lesions in the left periventricular white matter using fMRI, and found that right-hemisphere activation correlated with left facial motor tract i nvolvement. This suggests that the impairment of speech motor output from t he left hemisphere plays an important role in this alteration of language r epresentation.