Atypical language representation is unfavorable for language abilities following childhood stroke.

ABSTRACT: Brain plasticity has often been quoted as a reason for the more favorable outcome in childhood stroke compared to adult stroke. We investigated the relationship between language abilities and language localization in childhood stroke. Seventeen children and adolescents with left- or right-sided ischemic stroke and 18 healthy controls were tested with a comprehensive neurolinguistic test battery, and the individual neural representation of language was measured with an fMRI language paradigm. Overall, 12 of 17 stroke patients showed language abilities below average, and five patients exhibited impaired language performance. fMRI revealed increased activity in right hemisphere areas homotopic to left hemisphere language regions. In sum, seven stroke patients revealed atypical, i.e. bilateral

SUBMITTER: Bartha-Doering L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6339521 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature