[Dynamics of compensation for motor disorders in patients with vascular lesions of the brain].

Motor acts achieved in response to a verbal instruction, were analyzed in patients with an ischemic insult in the system of the middle cerebral artery. The patients were instructed to alternate the movements of the right and of the left hands in response of repetitive signals or,--in case of palsy,--to mentally represent the corresponding movement. Patients with a damage of the left hemisphere, when they understand the instruction, act correctly. Patients with damages of the right hemisphere, at an early stage of the illness, react to all signals with the right (healthy) hand alone, but they are fully convinced of acting according to the instruction. The analysis of this disturbance allows to suggest a functional elimination of the damaged hemisphere; this is considered to be a stage of the pathological process which is not manifest in the case of the left hemisphere injury because it is impossible to examine the patient at this stage of the illness.