Thousands of strokes in the right half of the brain may go unrecognized because their symptoms are less distinctive than those of left-side strokes, a statistical analysis suggests. In most people, left-side strokes can affect coordination in the dominant hand and can damage the brain’s language centers, impairing speech. Similar interruptions in blood flow to the right brain, on the other hand, tend to cause absented-minded behavior that might be mistaken as a normal part of aging.
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