Verbal dichotic listening and manual performance in children with congenital unilateral brain lesions.

The authors assessed manual performance and verbal dichotic listening performance in 16 epilepsy-free children with congenital unilateral brain lesions and normal IQ to investigate cerebral reorganization. In all children, the paretic hand had fair grip function, but reaction times were impaired, and cerebral reorganization of hand function in those with right hemiplegia was shown by the high incidence of pathological left-handedness. The dichotic listening results showed that most children with left lesions had a left ear advantage significantly related to the extent of brain damage. This finding suggests that extent of cortical damage and presence of thalamic involvement, irrespective of neuropathology, are the primary factors inducing rightward cerebral language reorganization in children with unilateral congenital brain lesions.