A special role for the right hemisphere in metaphor comprehension?

2007 ◽  
Vol 1146 ◽  
pp. 128-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seana Coulson ◽  
Cyma Van Petten
2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 266-286
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Konopka ◽  
Ewa Pisula ◽  
Emilia Łojek ◽  
Piotr Fudalej

Abstract The level of metaphor comprehension and interpretation was investigated in a sample of children with cleft palate (CP), aged 6;0-8;11, and healthy controls matched with age, sex, socioeconomic status, and IQ level. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Revised (WISC-R) was used to evaluate the children’s cognitive functioning, and the metaphor tests from a modified version of the Right Hemisphere Language Battery - Polish version (RHLB-PL) were used to assess comprehension of figurative language. The CP and control groups differed significantly in Verbal IQ values and in performance in the Vocabulary test, Comprehension test, Picture Metaphor Explanation test, and Written Metaphor Explanation test. In both metaphor explanation tests, children with CP gave fewer responses than controls. The results suggest no differences between children with CP and controls in understanding figurative language, although they point to weaker performance in communicating responses and producing statements in the CP children group.


2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renata Mancopes ◽  
Fernanda Schultz

Abstract Great emphasis has been placed on the right hemisphere, due to its possible selective contribution, in the processing of metaphorical statements. Objectives: To describe the processing of metaphors in the case of a patient with transcortical motor aphasia, using specific tests for patients with encephalic injuries of the right hemisphere, and to contribute to the discussion on the inter-hemispheric relationships associated with this function. Methods: A 54 year-old man with transcortical motor aphasia was evaluated three years after a left hemisphere stroke. The tasks of comprehension of metaphors were based on the subtest Metaphor Comprehension Task of the Montreal Evaluation of Communications Scale (MEC). Two metaphor comprehension tests were applied, in 45-minute sessions with a 48 hour interval between each. Test 1 involved comprehension of the metaphors according to the options offered, and Test 2 the comprehension of metaphors measured by response time and visual field. Results: Although the right hemisphere was not affected by the stroke in this case, difficulties were observed in the processing of metaphors. Conclusions: This study suggests that the left hemisphere participates in the processing of figurative meanings. The adaptability of the brain can also re-accommodate the uninjured areas of the brain, causing the dynamic of the brain to be modified. As a result, deducing cerebral functions based on clinical data can be problematic. The value of this study is that it can contribute to clinical aspects of language rehabilitation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Forster ◽  
Johannes Hewig ◽  
John JB Allen ◽  
Johannes Rodrigues ◽  
Philipp Ziebell ◽  
...  

The lateral frontal Cortex serves an important integrative function for converging information from a number of neural networks. It thus provides context and direction to both stimulus processing and accompanying responses. Especially in emotion related processing, the right hemisphere has often been described to serve a special role including a special sensitivity to stochastic learning and model building. In this study, the right inferior frontal gyrus (riFG) of 41 healthy participants was targeted via ultrasound neuromodulation to shed light on the involvement of this area in the representation of probabilistic context information and the processing of currently presented emotional faces. Analyses reveal that the riFG does not directly contribute to processing of currently depicted emotional stimuli but provides for information about the estimated likelihood of occurrence of stimulus features.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tala Noufi ◽  
Maor Zeev-Wolf

The neurotypical brain is characterized by left hemisphere lateralization for most language processing. However, the right hemisphere plays a crucial part when it is required to bring together seemingly unrelated concepts into meaningful expressions, such as in the case of novel metaphors (unfamiliar figurative expressions). The aim of the current study was to test whether it is possible to enhance novel metaphor comprehension through an easy, efficient, and non-invasive method – intentional contraction of the left hand’s muscles, to activate the motor and sensory areas in the contralateral hemisphere. One hundred eighteen neurotypical participants were asked to perform a semantic judgment task involving two-word expressions of four types: literal, conventional metaphors, novel metaphors, or unrelated, while squeezing a rubber ball with their right hand, left hand, or not at all. Results demonstrated that left-hand contraction improved novel metaphor comprehension, as participants were more accurate and quicker in judging them to be meaningful. The findings of the present work provide a simple and efficient method for boosting right hemisphere activation, which can be used to improve metaphoric language comprehension. This method can aid several populations in which right hemisphere function is not fully established, and who struggle with processing figurative language, such as adolescents and individuals on the autistic spectrum.


2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 824-836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Jacobs ◽  
Igor O. Korolev ◽  
Jeremy B. Caplan ◽  
Arne D. Ekstrom ◽  
Brian Litt ◽  
...  

During spatial navigation, lesion and functional imaging studies suggest that the right hemisphere has a unique functional role. However, studies of direct human brain recordings have not reported interhemisphere differences in navigation-related oscillatory activity. We investigated this apparent discrepancy using intracranial electroencephalographic recordings from 24 neurosurgical patients playing a virtual taxi driver game. When patients were virtually moving in the game, brain oscillations at various frequencies increased in amplitude compared with periods of virtual stillness. Using log-linear analysis, we analyzed the region and frequency specificities of this pattern and found that neocortical movement-related gamma oscillations (34–54 Hz) were significantly lateralized to the right hemisphere, especially in posterior neocortex. We also observed a similar right lateralization of gamma oscillations related to searching for objects at unknown virtual locations. Thus, our results indicate that gamma oscillations in the right neocortex play a special role in human spatial navigation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1006
Author(s):  
Kaisa M. Hartikainen

Hemispheric asymmetries in affective and cognitive functions have been extensively studied. While both cerebral hemispheres contribute to most affective and cognitive processes, neuroscientific literature and neuropsychological evidence support an overall right hemispheric dominance for emotion, attention and arousal. Emotional stimuli, especially those with survival value such as threat, tend to be prioritized in attentional resource competition. Arousing unpleasant emotional stimuli have prioritized access, especially to right-lateralized attention networks. Interference of task performance may be observed when limited resources are exhausted by task- and emotion-related processing. Tasks that rely on right hemisphere-dependent processing, like attending to the left visual hemifield or global-level visual features, are especially vulnerable to interference due to attention capture by unpleasant emotional stimuli. The aim of this review is to present literature regarding the special role of the right hemisphere in affective and attentional brain processes and their interaction. Furthermore, clinical and technological implications of this interaction will be presented. Initially, the effects of focal right hemisphere lesion or atrophy on emotional functions will be introduced. Neurological right hemisphere syndromes including aprosodia, anosognosia and neglect, which further point to the predominance of the intact right hemisphere in emotion, attention and arousal will be presented. Then there will be a brief review of electrophysiological evidence, as well as evidence from patients with neglect that support attention capture by emotional stimuli in the right hemisphere. Subsequently, experimental work on the interaction of emotion, attention and cognition in the right hemispheres of healthy subjects will be presented. Finally, clinical implications for better understanding and assessment of alterations in emotion–attention interaction due to brain disorder or treatment, such as neuromodulation, that impact affective brain functions will be discussed. It will be suggested that measuring right hemispheric emotion–attention interactions may provide basis for novel biomarkers of brain health. Such biomarkers allow for improved diagnostics in brain damage and disorders and optimized treatments. To conclude, future technological applications will be outlined regarding brain physiology-based measures that reflect engagement of the right hemisphere in affective and attentional processes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. O. Tretiak ◽  
A. G. Sokorenko ◽  
I. V. Dregval ◽  
O. V. Severynovska

75 female students of biology aged 18–22 were examined. The indicators of coherence of frequency components of electroencephalography in a quiet state and during solving tasks involving verbal-logical type of thinking, were assessed. The study included two stages: at the first stage, the individual psycho-physiological features of the students were investigated, then, the students investigated were divided into two groups, those with low and those with medium levels of performing tests. Performance of tasks involving verbal-logical thinking, compared with the background state, was characterized by polyrhythmic EEG activity with dominating δ-oscillations and prevailing δ-activity in the frontal area, which indicates their special role in regulation of complicated forms of cognitive activity. With development of ability of verbal-logical thinking, we established the increase in the spectral capacity in the frontal F3, F7, central С3, С4, parietal Р3, Р4 and temporal Т5 leads and increasing of synchronization in α-range in the left frontal zone, in areas near the Vernike zone and in the contour area F4–F8–T4–P4 of the right hemisphere. In the process of solving logical problems, the students with the low level of development of this cognitive ability demonstrated an increase of SC of β1-oscillation in Fp2, Р3, О2 leads, and the students with the medium level of development of logical thinking, on the contrary, demonstrated a reliable decrease in capacity of β1-oscillations in the central С4 and parietal Р4 leads. However, in the most productive students, a considerable number of significant functional connections and high values of coefficients of coherence between frontal F3–F4, F4–C4, central and parietal C3–P3, C4–P3, C4–P4 and occipital O1–O2 leads in the above mentioned EEG range were recorded. The spectral capacity of β2-components of EEG in students with different levels of development of logical thinking varied within background values and decreased in certain sections. The students with the medium level of manifestation of verbal-logical thinking demonstrated synchronization of SC of β2-range between frontal Fp1–Fp2, Fp2–F7, F3–F4 and other C3–C4, O1–T5, T3–T4 leads. While performing the tasks involving logical thinking, the students with low manifestation of this mental ability, did not demonstrate any considerable changes in indicators of SC of the θ-range. However, a reliable increase was established in the Fp1, Fp2, F7 and in О2 leads in the students tested in the group with the medium manifestation of cognitive ability. It should also be noted that with the development of verbal-logical way of thinking, the brain transfers in a special functioning mode with the low functional connection in the area of θ-oscillations, which indicates the preservation of the previously formed neural network. Therefore, in this work, we for the first-time distinguished special features and functional connections during performing verbal, rather than mathematical cognitive logical tasks: localization of loci of interaction at α-frequencies in frontal and central leads of the right hemisphere; β1 – in frontal leads of the left and central right hemisphere, β2 – in frontal and occipital left and in occipital areas of the right hemisphere. It was established that in low-frequency δ- and θ-ranges of EEG, both large cell ensembles, which embrace almost all right hemisphere, and separate sections in frontal, pariental, pariental-occipital locuses of the left hemisphere, are functionally integrated. 


2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 426-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATRINA KEIL ◽  
JULIANA BALDO ◽  
EDITH KAPLAN ◽  
JOEL KRAMER ◽  
DEAN C. DELIS

Problem: Inferential reasoning in language involves the ability to deduce information based on context and prior experience. This ability has been generally studied as a right-hemisphere function. Recent research, however, has suggested that inferencing involves anterior regions of both the left and right hemispheres. Methods: We further explored this idea by testing a group of non-aphasic, focal frontal patients (right and left hemisphere) on a new test of inferencing, the Word Context Test. The Word Context Test requires examinees to identify the meaning of a made-up word (e.g., prifa) based on its use in a series of sentences. Findings: Patients with frontal lobe lesions were significantly impaired on this task relative to a group of age- and education-matched controls. Contrary to earlier research focusing on a special role for the right hemisphere in inferencing, there was considerable overlap in performance of right- and left-frontal patients, with right-frontal patients performing better. Conclusions: These findings suggest that inferencing is disrupted following focal frontal injury and have implications for discourse comprehension in non-aphasic patients. (JINS, 2005, 11, 426–433.)


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 287-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Pawełczyk ◽  
Emilia Łojek ◽  
Tomasz Pawełczyk

Abstract The study assessed the quantity and quality of errors made by schizophrenia patients in understanding and interpretation of the same metaphors, to evaluate metaphor understanding and explanation depending on the type of presentation material, and to analyze the correlation of illness symptoms with metaphor comprehension and explanation. Two groups of participants were examined: a schizophrenia sample (40 participants) and a control group (39 participants). Metaphor processing was assessed by the subtests of the Polish version of the Right Hemisphere Language Battery (RHLB-PL). The patients were also evaluated with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Schizophrenia patients scored significantly lower in explanation of metaphors, making more incorrect literal and abstract mistakes or providing no answer more frequently. No differences were observed in understanding metaphors; no correlation between symptoms and metaphor processing was obtained. In both groups, picture metaphors were easier to comprehend and written metaphors were easier to comprehend than to explain.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document