Authors:

Patterson, K., Vargha-Khadem, F. & Polkey, C.E.

Reference:

Year of publication:

1989

CBU number:

2216

Abstract:

The subjects of this study were two originally right-handed teen-aged girls who had undergone complete hemispherectomy (one left, one right) for intractable epilepsy. Both subjects had developed normal language and reading capacities prior to the onset of their illness. The reading performance of HP (whose right hemisphere had been removed), while not as advanced in level as that of a normal 17-year old, showed no abnormality in any sub-component of reading skill. The reading performance of NI (whose left hemisphere had been removed) was poor, but with a pattern of retained and impaired sub-skills strikingly similar to adult deep dyslexic patients and to split-brain patients given reading tasks lateralised to the left visual field (right hemisphere). The results are discussed with regard to implications for the reading capacity of the non-dominant right hemisphere and also its putative contribution to normal reading.