Benowitz L I, Moya K L, Levine D N
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, Massachusetts.
Neuropsychologia. 1990;28(3):231-41. doi: 10.1016/0028-3932(90)90017-i.
In addition to causing visuospatial deficits, damage to the right cerebral hemisphere also impairs other cognitive abilities, including those requiring higher-order aspects of language. The present study used a standardized test battery to examine the relationship between visuospatial abilities and comprehension of narrative material in subjects having unilateral right hemisphere damage (RHD). In a series of 41 consecutively admitted RHD subjects, impairments in abstracting information from narrative passages were as prevalent and as severe in magnitude as constructional apraxia. Moreover, the extent of the visuospatial and linguistic impairments were highly correlated. Although age, educational levels, and degree of premorbid brain atrophy were all found to influence performance, analysis of a select subgroup of the population established that the covariation of visuospatial and verbal impairments is related to right hemisphere damage per se. Clinically, these findings may be of significance for understanding the pervasive cognitive impairments that are often evidenced by RHD patients.
除了导致视觉空间缺陷外，右侧大脑半球损伤还会损害其他认知能力，包括那些需要语言高阶方面的能力。本研究使用标准化测试组来检查单侧右侧半球损伤（RHD）患者的视觉空间能力与叙事材料理解之间的关系。在一系列连续收治的41名RHD患者中，从叙事段落中提取信息的损伤与结构性失用症一样普遍且严重程度相同。此外，视觉空间和语言损伤的程度高度相关。虽然年龄、教育水平和病前脑萎缩程度均被发现会影响表现，但对特定亚组人群的分析表明，视觉空间和言语损伤的共变与右侧半球损伤本身有关。临床上，这些发现对于理解RHD患者经常表现出的普遍认知损伤可能具有重要意义。
