Question

Case Study #3

A 77-year-old woman was cooking in the kitchen when she collapsed onto the floor. Her daughter called an ambulance and the woman was taken to the emergency room. She had suffered a stroke, and slowly regained consciousness over the next two days. However, when she woke up, she had the following signs and symptoms:
• paralysis of the right face and arm
• loss of sensation to touch on the skin of the right face and arm
• inability to answer questions but ability to understand what was said to her
• ability to write down her thoughts more easily than to speak them

1. Why was the patient paralyzed in the right face
and arm?
a) The patient suffered a stroke that cause damage
to her left primary motor cortex.
b) The patient suffered a stroke that cause damage
to her left somatosensory cortex.
c) The patient suffered a stroke that cause damage
to her right primary motor cortex.
d) The patient suffered a stroke that cause damage
to her right somatosensory cortex.

2. What type of language disorder did this
patient experience, and what caused it?
a) nonfluent aphasia; damage to Broca's area
b) fluent aphasia; damage to Broca's area
c) nonfluent aphasia; damage to Wernicke's area
d) fluent aphasia; damage to Wernicke's area

3. Was the woman's dominant or nondominant
hemisphere damaged?

Answer 1

The patient's left primary motor cortex and primary somatosensory cortex were affected by the stroke, leading to right-sided paralysis and sensory loss. She experienced a)nonfluent aphasia due to damage to Broca's area in her dominant hemisphere, which is likely the left hemisphere.

Step-by-step explanation:

The 77-year-old woman in the case study suffered from a stroke that led to specific neurological symptoms. Given her paralysis of the right face and arm coupled with the loss of sensation to touch on that side, her left primary motor cortex and primary somatosensory cortex were likely affected (Answer: a). This is because the motor and sensory functions of one side of the body are typically controlled by the opposite side of the brain.

The language disorder the patient experienced is characterized by her ability to understand language but difficulty with producing it, suggesting nonfluent aphasia. This condition is associated with damage to Broca's area (Answer: a), which is located in the dominant hemisphere of the brain responsible for language production.

Since the patient had difficulty with speech production but could understand speech, and since most people have language functions located in the left hemisphere, the woman's dominant hemisphere, which is typically the left hemisphere, was damaged. Hence, the effects observed in her right face and arm, as well as her speech difficulties, align with the left hemisphere being her dominant one.