THE EFFECTS OF HEMISPHERECTOMY ON INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONING IN CASES OF INFANTILE HEMIPLEGIA

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Abstract
A greater overall increase in intellectual functioning occurred in 28 cases of hemispherectomy in patients with infantile hemiplegia than in 9 cases of partial removal. The remaining hemisphere is able to function normally but with certain limitations related to associative and intellectual functions usually performed by the two hemispheres. The limitations bear particularly on language functions irrespective of which hemisphere is removed. The deficit in the majority of patients is one of the development of verbal intelligence amounting to dysphasia in some cases. Since nothing is known of the neurophysiological basis of intellectual functions in two hemispheres, little can be said of the necessary reorganization underlying the mechanism by which one hemisphere functions for two.