Individuals who have sustained a head injury, stroke, tumor, or significant infection can experience a multitude of symptoms that may be the result of damage to the right hemisphere of their brain.
The right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for a wide variety of functions, but when it has been damaged, there are patterns of symptoms that tend to be noticeable. These symptoms can range from mild to severe. They may fundamentally alter a person’s ability to function in everyday life. And sometimes these symptoms can be initially difficult to identify.
Attention and concentration are often affected. A person may experience more difficulty multitasking, sustaining their attention for longer periods or time, or focusing in on something while ignoring potentially distracting information.
Another possible symptom concerns memory. A person with right hemisphere damage may have difficulty remembering details, important dates, or even person information (e.g., date of birth, address, etc.).
A third possible symptom is generally referred to as “orientation.” This encompasses things like knowing the date and being able to accurately understand and explain what is going on.
Sometimes individuals with right hemisphere damage show increased problems with organization. They may not be able to tell a story in a manner that makes sense (e.g., chronologically), or they may have trouble staying on a topic during conversation.
These difficulties can often also contribute to deficits in reasoning and problem solving. In other words, a person with right hemisphere damage may have impaired judgment and decision making that is related to, or separate from the other difficulties mentioned.
A more perplexing symptom related to attention and concentration is called left-side neglect. This causes a person to no longer acknowledge the left side of his/her body or space (because the left side is controlled by the right hemisphere which has sustained the damage). For example, a person with left side neglect may only eat things on the right side of his/her plate because they do not “see” what is on the left side unless the plate is rotated so that the food on the left side comes into their right visual field.
Last, it is not uncommon for a person who has sustained right hemisphere damage to have difficulties with speaking and understanding language. In some instances, communication may be severely impaired, but in others, they may just have trouble with pragmatic language. Pragmatic language encompasses being able to read and understand nonverbal communication cues like facial expressions, gestures, or even the timing of speaking (i.e., not interrupting).
Right hemisphere damage can be very challenging to live with because oftentimes the person must learn new ways of doing things that previously were automatic. If a person has sustained a serious head injury, stroke, or infection and you notice an increase in some of the symptoms noted in this article, you may benefit from consulting with a neuropsychologist.
A neuropsychologist can conduct an assessment to determine whether there are significant abnormalities in your functioning and help you in determining how to address any difficulties. Additionally, the neuropsychologist may recommend consulting with a speech and language pathologist if the ability to communicate is significantly impaired.
For more information please contact Chicagoland Neuropsychology. We understand how profound this matter is and will give you the attention and information you deserve.