Individual variations in anatomic cerebral asymmetries have been linked with specific neurodevelopmental processes, with patterns of cognitive ability, and with recovery from focal brain damage. The present study investigated relationships between cerebral asymmetries and recovery from aphasia. Aphasic patients (N = 25) were assessed for language recovery for 1 year poststroke, and linear measurements of cerebral asymmetries were performed on CT scans. Increasing left occipital width asymmetry was associated with faster rate of language recovery and with higher final language scores during the first year poststroke. There was, moreover, a tendency for increasing left occipital width asymmetry to be associated with less initial impairment. It is hypothesized that those aspects of neural organization conferring better premorbid language skills are the same factors conferring greater recovery of language skills and that occipital width asymmetry serves as a marker for such individual differences in neural organization.
Aged Aged, 80 and over