[Crossed aphasia: considerations on a clinical case].

Abstract

A right-handed patient with no family history of either neurological disorders or of left-handedness was affected by crossed aphasia due to a focal hemorrhagic lesion in the right hemisphere at the level of the basal ganglia. The CAT-scan revealed the site of the brain change. Our case is uncommon in that the aphasia. Assessed by neuropsychological tests, was associated with impairment of right functions such as visual and spatial cognition. Thus he does not fit the classic description of crossed aphasia, exhibiting instead language disorders similar to those following deep brain lesions. Various hypotheses were considered in attempting to explain the pathogenesis of our neurological data, none of which proved adequate to account for all the reported findings.