When
Anna Seydell-Greenwald
Assistant Professor
Neurology & Rehabilitation Medicine
Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC
Beyond motor and speech difficulties: Effects of right-hemisphere stroke on cognition, emotion, and functional brain organization
Abstract: When it comes to recognizing stroke symptoms, many people are familiar with the acronym F.A.S.T. as promoted by the American Stroke Association: When observing Face drooping, Arm weakness, and Speech difficulty, it is Time to call 911, because the faster a person experiencing a stroke arrives at the hospital, the more likely they are to receive treatments that can quite literally save brain and vastly reduce post-stroke impairments. However, the above criteria – as well as more sophisticated clinical screening tools – under-detect and underestimate the severity of right-hemisphere strokes, which often leave speech and dominant-side motor function intact. This presentation aims to raise awareness for how cognitive functions usually ascribed to the brain’s right hemisphere, such as visual-spatial skills, attention, and emotion recognition, are altered – behaviorally and in terms of their neural representation – by stroke, and how these alterations impact the lives of stroke survivors and those around them.