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Recuperação da linguagem após AVC : o caso particualr dos estereotipos verbais e da visual word from area

Publication . Rodrigues, Inês Tello Rato Milheiras; Caldas, Alexandre Lemos Castro

Within the last decade, the use of fMRI and neuromodulation systems in patients with aphasia has substantially advanced the understanding of the mechanisms underlying functional language reorganization in response to a brain lesion. Neuroplasticity research yields numerous outcomes for the differential contribution of perilesional and contralesional brain areas to language recovery in aphasia. Research to the date, refer that the potential for functional reorganization critically depends on preserved left regions and connections that offer the anatomical substrate supporting language recovery. If language functioning is unable to return to the left hemisphere because of the extent or specific local of damage, language functioning remains in the right hemisphere but retains dysfunctional elements. This thesis aims to explore brain plasticity mechanisms that sustain language recovery, in the particular case of aphasia patients with recurring utterances and also in patients with severe alexia. The nature of these deficits was explored across different modalities and techniques, namely, fMRI and rTMS. Our results emphasized that the right hemisphere activity reflects an increased, but ultimately ineffective search and selection process, in patients with chronic aphasia. Essentially, in accordance with previous investigations, our data highlight the less capability of the right hemisphere as an alternative when damage severity prevents the ultimate return of language processes to the left hemisphere.

2015-03-27Doctoral thesis

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