The proposed study addresses the effect of unilateral right or left hemisphere lesions upon young children's language development, cognitive ability and academic achievement. The principal questions addressed include: Do the previously identified expressive syntactic deficits persist in left-lesioned subjects or diminish over time? Are difficulties in syntactic comprehension apparent as the children become older and more amenable to testing? Does the rate and nature of cues effect lexical retrieval differentially for left- and right-lesioned subjects. Are differences in cognitive profiles revealed at older ages on more discriminating measures? Are reading, writing and mathematic problems present at school age and are there differences between left- and right-lesioned children? And, can site of lesion within a hemisphere be related to the severity of deficit in a skill area? At the onset of this continuation study, 21 children with left lesions and 17 with right lesions have been recruited for participation in yearly testing. These unilaterally-lesioned children's performance on an extensive battery of language, cognitive and achievement measures will be compared to that of matched controls. The study addresses the issue of the limits of cerebral equipotentiality, provides data detailing children's language, cognitive and achievement abilities subsequent to left or right lesions, charts changes during development and relates lesion localization to resultant effect on higher cognitive functioning in children. Finally, the study provides information upon which clinicians can base their clinical judgments, treatment recommendations, remedial programs and prognostic statements for children with unilateral lesions.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01NS017366-05
Application #
3397515
Study Section
Communication Sciences and Disorders (CMS)
Project Start
1981-09-01
Project End
1987-08-31
Budget Start
1985-09-01
Budget End
1986-08-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
1985
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Case Western Reserve University
Department
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
077758407
City
Cleveland
State
OH
Country
United States
Zip Code
44106
Eisele, J A; Aram, D M (1994) Comprehension and imitation of syntax following early hemisphere damage. Brain Lang 46:212-31
Aram, D M; Eisele, J A (1994) Intellectual stability in children with unilateral brain lesions. Neuropsychologia 32:85-95
Ashcraft, M H; Yamashita, T S; Aram, D M (1992) Mathematics performance in left and right brain-lesioned children and adolescents. Brain Cogn 19:208-52
Aram, D M; Meyers, S C; Ekelman, B L (1990) Fluency of conversational speech in children with unilateral brain lesions. Brain Lang 38:105-21
Papanicolaou, A C; DiScenna, A; Gillespie, L et al. (1990) Probe-evoked potential findings following unilateral left-hemisphere lesions in children. Arch Neurol 47:562-6
Aram, D M; Ekelman, B L (1988) Auditory temporal perception of children with left or right brain lesions. Neuropsychologia 26:931-5
Aram, D M (1988) Language sequelae of unilateral brain lesions in children. Res Publ Assoc Res Nerv Ment Dis 66:171-97
Aram, D M; Ekelman, B L (1987) Unilateral brain lesions in childhood: performance on the Revised Token Test. Brain Lang 32:137-58
Aram, D M; Ekelman, B L; Satz, P (1986) Trophic changes following early unilateral injury to the brain. Dev Med Child Neurol 28:165-70
Aram, D M; Ekelman, B L; Whitaker, H A (1986) Spoken syntax in children with acquired unilateral hemisphere lesions. Brain Lang 27:75-100

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