ABSTRACT
The last decade has seen enormous growth in research which shows that the right hemisphere does a great deal. The final dogma of the dominance model is the notion that, while the left hemisphere may not control all language processing, what it does do that the right cannot do is speak. The importance of the hemispherectomy cases E.C. and N.F. is that they demonstrated most clearly what earlier, but less carefully studied, hemispherectomy patients had suggested for some years, that the isolated right hemisphere was capable of producing speech. In this chapter we consider the contribution that the hemispherectomy cases E.C. and N.F., described by Smith and Burklund (1966), have made to our understanding of the role of the right hemisphere in speech production. We look firstly, and briefly, at the role of the right hemisphere in language in general. We then look at hemispherectomy and consider the reports of speech production in E.C. and N.F. Finally, we contrast the two cases and consider the significance and limitations of their contribution.
