In the preoperative neuropsychological evaluation of certain patients with epilepsy it is important to determine the hemispheric dominance; particularly in those of doubtful laterality, due to the high postoperative risks of affectation of the language and the memory. The test of Wada allows guiding the neurosurgeon about the possible impact of the surgical procedure in the hemispheric areas related to the language and the memory. Although it is well-known that the execution in diagnostic neuropsychological tests is under the influence of an important series of variables, as the culture and the educational level, until now there are not specific protocols for this kind of exploration in illiterate patients. In this study we describe the experience in the test of WADA of an illiterate patient with epilepsy diagnosis and cerebral congenital left hemiatrophy, of left-handed manual laterality. With base in the protocol of Trenerry and Loring the language tasks and memory were implemented according to the patient’s cultural context. It was found a right hemispheric representation for the language and the memory. These results confirm the effects of the cerebral plasticity in the reorganization and /or compensation of the cognitive functions, as the language and the memory in the cerebral hemisphere not affected.

Leer artículo completo