Case report - Crossed Aphasia

A case study of crossed aphasia is presented. A 60-year-old right-handed individual suffered stroke in the right hemisphere leaving him with Broca's aphasia and severe verbal apraxia. A CT scan 3 days after hospitalization showed a new frontotemporal infarct in the right hemisphere, insula and frontal portion of the superior and middle temporal gyrus. MRI 2 weeks later showed more diverse changes involving the parietal lobe. In addition to the Broca's aphasia and verbal apraxia AA had prosodic difficulties involving intonation, stress and conversational vocal variations. Interesting phonological problems were also present, such as total loss of so-called preaspiration, a characteristic of the Icelandic phonological system. In 70% of crossed aphasia cases the symptoms are similar to those of aphasia in the left hemisphere but AA clearly does not fall into that group.