Résumé
Semantic cognition is the ability to access meaning, knowledge and thus understand the world around us in order to communicate. For several decades, research in brain localization has shown that language is lateralized in the left hemisphere. In addition, recent studies on low-grade gliomas have shown the involvement of the right hemisphere in non-verbal semantic processing. However, no study has shown the importance of the right hemisphere in semantic cognition in stroke. The main objective of our research is therefore to demonstrate semantic cognition disorders in patients with stroke affecting the right hemisphere of the brain. In this study, we recruited 10 patients to whom we administered several tests from existing batteries testing semantic cognition. Our results indicate that a small proportion of the subjects obtains pathological scores and time on the different tests, in both verbal and non-verbal modalities. The analysis of the results showed that there are slight semantic disorders in our patients and in particular a deficit of access to semantic representations. An impairment of semantic control was also observed with a slowdown in the speed of information processing. Thus, a speech therapy evaluation of patients with a stroke affecting the right hemisphere is essential in the acute phase in order to evaluate the integrity of semantic cognition and to be able to propose an adapted management afterwards. Moreover, our study has shed new light on the neuro-anatomical-functional correlates of semantic cognition. It would therefore be interesting to continue this study on a larger sample in order to obtain more representative results.