Are there any mild interhemispheric effects after moderately severe closed head injury?

Abstract

Interhemispheric communication of motor, sensory and language information in parallel with in formation processing was investigated in four male patients (age range 22-37 years) 3 and 6 months after moderately severe closed head injury. Specific tasks of interhemispheric functions were given: linguistic tasks (tactile naming, writing and ideomotor praxis), motor tasks (graphaesthesia, tactile and finger localization) and sensory tasks (smell and colour vision). Information processing was evaluated by means of the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT). In comparison with age-matched controls (normals and paraplegics), post-injury findings indicated subtle motor, sensorimotor and language deficits in combinations suggesting mild interhemispheric disconnection. On most tasks, patients' performance improved over time along with gradual normalization of information processing. It is concluded that interhemispheric effects in the early phases after head injury may have a significant bearing on the process of recovery and functional restoration.