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A patient presents with weakness and numbness in her left arm and the lower left side of her face, with all other functions being normal. As a budding clinician or functional neuroanatomist, you would suspect a possible stroke involving a branch of which artery? A) Right middle cerebral artery B) Left anterior cerebral artery C) Left middle cerebral artery D) Posterior cerebral artery

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Final answer:

Right middle cerebral artery, which supplies blood to the areas affecting the face, arm, and speech/language processing on the opposite side of the patient's symptoms. The correct answer is A)

Step-by-step explanation:

A patient presenting with weakness and numbness in her left arm and the lower left side of her face, with all other functions being normal, possibly indicates a stroke. The specific symptoms suggest that a particular part of the brain has been deprived of oxygen due to a disruption in blood supply. Considering the brain's anatomy and which arteries supply specific regions, the correct answer would be A) Right middle cerebral artery.

The middle cerebral artery is responsible for supplying blood to the lateral part of the cerebral hemisphere, which includes the areas affecting the face, arm, and speech/language processing. Since the patient has symptoms on the left side of the face and arm, the issue likely resides in the right hemisphere of the brain, due to the brain's contralateral organization where each hemisphere controls the opposite side of the body.

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