Right Hemisphere Brain Damage (RHD) or (CCD)

Question 1

Is RHD common label for deficits associated with right hemisphere damage? (RHD)

Answer 1

NO - book uses cognitive communication disorder (CCD)

Question 2

What poorer outcomes are linked to RHD-CCD?

Answer 2

• Reduced social participation
• Requiring dependent living upon discharge
• longer acute/subacute stays
• increased mortality
• lower participation-level outcomes
• poorer functional status upon discharge

Question 3

Characteristics of RHD-CCD

Answer 3

BOTH cognitive and communciation deficits

Cognitive deficits

• Attention
• Executive Function
• Awareness of deficits (anosognosia)

Communication deficits:

• Prosody (aprosodia)
• Comprehension
• Production
• Pragmatics

Question 4

Attention difficulties associated with RHD-CCD

Answer 4

Difficulty with :

• sustained: responding to a stimulus
• selective: focusing on stimulus while ignoring distractors
• alternating (divided): shifting between stimuli or multi-tasking
• Unilateral Neglect

Question 5

Unilateral neglect & RHD-CCD

Answer 5

• reduced attention to contralesional space
• can occur following damage to either hemisphere
• NOT a visual deficit
  
  • but can co-occur with hemianopsia (visual field cut)
• can differ/be described in a variety of ways:
  
  • various types of neglect
  • varies by region of space
  • varies over time
  • varies depending on stimuli, task, complexity, other attentional demands