The right hemisphere is not unitary in its role in aphasia recovery.

ABSTRACT: Neurologists and aphasiologists have debated for over a century whether right hemisphere recruitment facilitates or impedes recovery from aphasia. Here we present a well-characterized patient with sequential left and right hemisphere strokes whose case substantially informs this debate. A 72-year-old woman with chronic nonfluent aphasia was enrolled in a trial of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). She underwent 10 daily sessions of inhibitory TMS to the right pars triangularis. Brain activity was measured during picture naming using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) prior to TMS exposure and before and after TMS on the first day of treatment. Language and cognition were tested behaviorally three times prior to treatment, and at 2 and 6 months afterward. Inhibitory TMS to t

SUBMITTER: Turkeltaub PE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3221765 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature