Transient and persistent right ear extinction in dichotic listening

Abstract
Nine patients with aphasia had right ear extinction in dichotic listening to words in the first month after an ischemic stroke; they were reassessed after 3 months. Four showed complete recovery from the right ear extinction; in five, the abnormality persisted. In those who recovered, CT revealed a subcortical lesion lateral to the frontal horn of the lateral ventricle without a lesion of Heschl's gyrus or geniculo-temporal pathways; a lesion in those structures was found in patients who did not recover. As reported for subcortical aphasia, a subcortical mechanism may explain contralateral ear extinction in dichotic listening.