The role of the left and right hemispheres in recovery from aphasia

Abstract

The respective contributions of the left and right cerebral hemispheres in the recovery from aphasia are a matter of debate. This paper is devoted to a review of several different sources of related clinical and experimental evidence: bilateral lesion cases, laterality studies in aphasics, neurophysiological and neuroimaging investigations. The data collected with these different approaches provide converging evidence for the contribution of both hemispheres to the process of language recovery. Time post-onset, as well as a number of lesion-related and individual differences, modulate the relative contribution of each hemisphere in the individual case.