Communicative Clusters after a Right-Hemisphere Stroke: Are There Universal Clinical Profiles?

OBJECTIVE: The current research aimed at classifying communication profiles among right-brain-damaged adults with an intercultural perspective, and so begins to fill in a long-standing gap in the literature. METHOD: The sample was made up of 112 right-brain-damaged individuals from three nationalities (Canadians, Brazilians and Argentineans). They were assessed using 13 language tasks from the Protocol MEC in Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and French. RESULTS: A hierarchical cluster analysis led to four distinct clinical profiles of communication. Since only a few distinctions between nationalities were observed, the results suggest that there probably is a partial universality of clinical profiles of communication impairments after a right brain damage. CONCLUSIONS: This study proposes a preliminary taxonomy of communication disorders among right-brain-damaged individuals with cross-cultural implications. The exploration of associated stroke sites and neuropsychological concomitant deficits would contribute to the eventual development of a more accurate clinical intervention.