engleski

Speech-language difficulties in adults with right hemisphere brain damage

Recent studies have demonstrated that the right hemisphere is not a silent area for language and that it also has a role in normal speech functioning. In most cases, right hemisphere damages do not cause obvious aphasial problems. Although the difficulties exhibited by adult patients with right hemisphere damage (RHD) are not related to psycholinguistic process components, they influence the psycholinguistic process indirectly. - Materials & Methods The aim of this study was to establish the kind of speech-language problems occurring in RHD adults. The study applied the Psycholinguistic Assessment of Language Processing in Aphasia (J. Kay, R. Lesser & M. Coltheart, 1997), using only eight parts of the test. The test was applied to four groups of examinees: a group with RHD, a group with LHD, a group with LHD patients in therapy and a group with no brain damage. - Results Results indicate that RHD adults have mild speech-language difficulties, especially in tasks where functions of the right hemisphere have been affected. RHD adults had slightly poorer test results than adults without brain damage both for single tasks and for the overall test. Patients with RHD did not have the classic aphasia symptoms. Their speech difficulties had other origins characteristic for RH brain damage. - Conclusion The symptoms of damage to the right hemisphere are qualitatively and quantitatively different from the symptoms of aphasia following damage to the left hemisphere. Speech language difficulties manifest only in some patients with RHD, depending on a range of factors (age, education, causes, severity of the damage, left-handedness and other). In all cases, it is important to keep in mind that aphasia does not only represent heavy forms of damage to certain language functions but some milder forms as well.

speech-language difficulties; brain - right hemisphere

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