The history of crossed aphasia: early development of concepts and hypotheses
Section snippets
The introduction of a new concept called ‘crossed aphasia’
As an exception to so-called Broca's dogma which established left hemisphere language dominance in right-handers and right hemisphere language dominance in left-handers, Byrom Bramwell (1847–1931) introduced in 1899 the concept of crossed aphasia (CA). Bramwell (1899) defined as such the phenomenon of aphasia caused by brain damage ipsilateral to the dominant hand. He documented the concept with a thorough description of a 36-year-old left-handed male who still presented important expressive
Initial evidence against the standard views
In line with Bramwell's observations (1899), several additional cases of crossed aphasia in sinistrals (CAS) were reported during the first few decades of the 20th century (Ardin-Delteil et al., 1923, Chester, 1936, Leipmann, 1912, Long, 1913, Miyake, 88, Tilney, 1936, Weisenburg and McBride, 1935). Within this group of early observations, the reports of Leipmann, 1912, Long, 1913 particularly challenged the classical views on aphasia in sinistrals by contradicting expected anatomoclinical
Hidden sinistrality
In an effort to sustain the integrity of the dogma of cerebral dominance for language, most authors at the beginning of the 20th century reduced CAD to an artifact. The right-hand preference of patients with CAD was often identified as an artificial effect, due to social and educational correction of congenital left-handedness. Terms such as the English ‘hidden sinistrality’, the French ‘gaucher corrigé’ and the German ‘verkappten Linkser’ were used to indicate the so-called hidden forms of
Conclusions
The insights regarding the ‘gaucherie cérébrale’ and the dogma of an inherent correlation between hand preference and cerebral dominance for language played a crucial role in the formation of the CA concept. Bramwell (1899) united clinical exceptions to these insights in the CA concept at the end of the 19th century and explained the phenomenon on the basis of three causal factors: (1) genetically determined transfer of cerebral dominance for language; (2) congenital, natural hand preference;
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2022, Handbook of Clinical NeurologyCitation Excerpt :The notion that that language representation in one hemisphere is associated with a contralateral hand-preference became very dominant and became even known as Broca's doctrine, even though he had explicitly denied the association (Eling, 1984). English neurosurgeon Byrom Bramwell (1847–1931) described a case not following the role, a left-handed patient suffering from aphasia due to an ipsilesional lesion (Marien et al., 2002). Bramwell proposed to use the term “crossed aphasia” for this condition.
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