Early Brain Damage and the Ontogenesis of Functional Asymmetry

A Theory of Neurolinguistic Development

“…If linguistic responsibilities are absorbed by mechanisms in the right hemisphere, these mechanisms would have been doing something else beforehand. One of these responsibilities is visuospatial processing (Henry, Satz, & Saslow, 1984;Wendt & Risberg, 1994). Stiles and Nass (1991) demonstrated that right hemisphere damage impairs performance on spatial integrative tasks-the performance of their recovered right hemisphere-damaged patients was qualitatively different from that of normals.…”

Developing the Capacity to Connect

“…In adults, the right cortex remains the key area of the brain guiding our connections. It is associated with empathic cognition as well as the ability to perceive the emotional states of others (Moscovitch and Olds 1982; Dopson et al 1984; Henry, Satz, and Saslow 1984; Borod et al 1986; Best and Queen 1989; Ahern et al 1991; Johnson and Hugdahl 1991; Ross, Homan, and Buck 1994; Shapiro, Jamner, and Spencer 1997; Sutton and Davidson 1997; Keenan et al 2000; Katanoda, Yoshikawa, and Sugishita 2000; Ricciardelle, Ro, and Driver 2002; Watanabe, Miki, and Kakigi 2002; Platek et al 2004; Mandal and Ambady 2004). The right side of the brain plays an important role in many aspects of the emotional world including processing, expressing, and regulating emotional information (Schore 2003).…”

“…The right side of the brain plays an important role in many aspects of the emotional world including processing, expressing, and regulating emotional information (Schore 2003). The right cortex sends social signals necessary for the initiation of social interactions and affiliative behavior (Henry et al 1984; Shapiro et al 1997; Sutton and Davidson 1997).…”