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  • Essay / What are the advantages of brain lateralization?

    After injury, through the mechanism of plasticity, reorganization of sensory and motor systems occurs at multiple levels, including the spinal cord, brainstem, thalamus, and cortex (Chen, Cohen & Hallett, 2002 ). In addition, if the injury occurs at a young age, the reorganization is even more thorough and determines better recovery. Neuroplasticity and neurogenesis can still occur in adults, but they are less effective and less rapid than in children. What happens after a hemispherectomy dramatically demonstrates the resilience of the brain in the face of significant damage (Villablanca and Hovda, 2000). For example, “when an entire cerebral hemisphere is removed early after birth in cats, the rest of the brain continues to grow, and as adults the animals appear no different from normal littermates” (Villablanca and Hovda, 2000). Numerous experiments have been carried out to better understand the consequences of hemispherectomies on the functional structure of the brain. Holloway, Gadian, Vargha-Khadem, Porter, Boyd, and Connelly (2000) studied the sensorimotor functions of the hemiplegic hand after hemispherectomy and the results proved that all patients with congenital disease had residual sensory function in the hand contralateral to the hemispherectomized. side, while half of the patients had residual motor functions. In patients with acquired disease, 66% had residual sensory function while none