Longitudinal dichotic listening patterns for aphasic patients. I. Description of recovery curves.

Aphasic patients were given digit and noun dichotic listening tests at monthly intervals during the first 6 months postonset of left hemisphere ischemic infarctions. Significant changes in performance were observed that consisted of parallel increases in scores for the two ears, and thus did not support the hypothesis that language recovery is mediated by transfer of language dominance from the left to the right hemisphere. Reliable differences also were noted between performance on the two tests. RE scores accounted for most of the variance among patients in performance on dichotic tests and, as such, appeared to be the best measure for characterizing individual differences.