RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Mother tongue lost while second language intact: insights into aphasia
JF BMJ Case Reports
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP bcr0720092062
DO 10.1136/bcr.07.2009.2062
VO 2010
A1 Ana M Garcia
A1 Jose A Egido
A1 Maria Sagrario Barquero
YR 2010
UL http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2010/bcr.07.2009.2062.abstract
AB Cortical representations of the native language and a second language may have different anatomical distribution. The relationships between the phonologic and orthographic forms of words continue to be debated. We present a bilingual patient whose competence in his mother tongue was disrupted following brain ischaemia. Semantic units were accessible only as isolated letters in written as well as oral language presentation. His second language appeared completely unaffected. Whole word system disturbance of both orthography and phonology pathways of the native language could explain this presentation. It is a great opportunity to learn about the language neural network when a bilingual subject presents with brain ischaemia.