Wada test

Wa·da test 'wä-də- n a test that is used to determine whether the right or left cerebral hemisphere is dominant for speech and that involves injection of amobarbital into the internal carotid artery first on one side and then on the other so that transient aphasia results when the injection is made into the artery on the dominant side

Wada Juhn Atsushi (b 1924)

Canadian (Japanese-born) neurologist. Wada held the concurrent positions of professor of neurology at the University of British Columbia and attending neurologist at Vancouver General Hospital. His areas of research included epilepsy and the brain mechanisms of human behavior. He introduced the Wada test for determining which side of the brain is dominant for speech in 1960.

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(for cerebral dominance of language function) amobarbital is injected into an internal carotid artery to produce transient hemiparesis of the contralateral limbs. Injection into the artery of the hemisphere dominant for language produces a transient aphasia, into that of the nondominant hemisphere does not interfere with language function.