What happens when the right cerebral hemisphere is injured?

Taxonomically, We usually talk about the brain as the composition of two halves: the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere.. The latter controls the left side of the body and processes signals from the left visual field. It is also involved in creativity and the recognition of faces, places and objects.

According to the theory of left-right brain dominance, the left side of the cortex would be more specialized in tasks that require logic and calculation. On the contrary, the right side would be in charge of artistic, creative and spontaneous activities (Corballis, 2014; Joseph, 1988).

The cerebral hemispheres work together through the corpus callosum.

Characteristics of the right cerebral hemisphere

The right hemisphere plays a very relevant role in locating stimuli in space.. In relation to so-called spatial vision, the most severe problems have been observed after lesions in the posterior part of the right cerebral hemisphere.

Another dominant function of this cortical region is short-term spatial memory, which is carried out by the posterior part of said hemisphere (Mohr, et al., 2000).

Other functional characteristics of the right cerebral hemisphere are the following:

Musical: play an instrument, accurately identify the note that is being played.Synthetic: joins things to form sets or a whole.Non verbal: helps analyze non-verbal aspects of language, such as facial gestures.Broad perspective: allows you to take a broad view of the problems, instead of choosing to analyze each of the details in detail.Analogical: sees similarities between things, understands metaphorical relationships.

What happens when you are injured?

People with an injury to the right cerebral hemisphere may experience the following consequences:

Attention. They may not be able to concentrate on a task or on what they see or hear.Perception. They may have left-sided hemineglect, that is, they are unable to detect, orient themselves, or respond to stimuli that appear on the left side.Reasoning and problem solving. You may have difficulty detecting and solving problems.Memory. They may have problems remembering information, especially if the lesion is located in the temporal lobe.Social comunication. They have difficulty understanding jokes or non-verbal cues. For example, don’t understand what someone means when they shrug their shoulders.Organization. They may have trouble putting information together logically. This can cause problems when telling stories or giving instructions. They may also have trouble planning.Vision. They may not recognize that they have a problem. Or they may not realize that their problems cause problems at home, school, or work.Orientation. They may have trouble knowing the date, time, or where they are. They may not remember information such as your date of birth, age, or last name.Artistic problems. People who have injuries to the right side of the brain can become artistically clumsy (McGilchrist, 2019).The sense of self. The right brain hemisphere can dominate consciousness and self-image. Acute injuries to it disrupt the sense of self more severely than injuries to the left side.

The person may also have trouble using their arms or legs. The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body. This means your movement will be worse on the left side.

People with an injury to the right hemisphere of the brain have difficulty reasoning and solving problems.

Communication problems in people with injuries to the right cerebral hemisphere

This hemisphere also has an important role in communication, although as a rule it is not the dominant one for language. When injured, The elements of communication most affected are usually prosody, speech intonation and pragmatics, or practical extralinguistic messages. that the speakers transmit. He is also responsible for associating emotions with phrases.

Patients with right cerebral hemisphere disease have flat intonation and they may not understand the emotional aspects, irony, sarcasm and humor in people’s speech. They are able to understand what is said, but not how. The communication deficit resulting from damage to this hemisphere is socially disabling for patients, making it difficult to readapt to the family and work environment (Kirshner, 2003).

Damage to this part of the brain can cause speech alterations and difficulties in understanding and producing narratives. In complex or long narratives, the absence of a unifying theme or main idea causes particular problems in comprehension and retention.

To end, The complexity of the brain means that features of both cerebral hemispheres work together, often communicating with each other through the corpus callosum. Many mental functions require both sides of the brain to work in tune, which rules out the idea that each side outperforms the other or that one is more important.

You might be interested…