Cognitive abilities, language and reasoning after vascular brain stroke

Abstract

Main cognitive abilities, such as language, calculation and reasoning have been examined in a patient affected by a vascular lesion localized at left parieto-temporal areas of his brain. Neuropsychological assessment showed certain deficits at some mental functions. Especially, impairment of some aspects of semantic and categorial reasoning, verbal and non-verbal is remarkable. Furthermore, some linguistic functions (naming, reading, writing) and calculation abilities are impaired in some degree. Verbal and non-verbal propositional reasoning tasks, on the other hand are significantly better preserved than other cognitive abilities. Relevance of this case for illustrating the dichotomy between certain aspects´ specialization of thought and language and their cerebral localization is discussed, especially those related with posterior and frontal components of human reasoning.