scholarly journals Role of frontal cortex in inferential reasoning: Evidence from the Word Context Test

2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 426-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATRINA KEIL ◽  
JULIANA BALDO ◽  
EDITH KAPLAN ◽  
JOEL KRAMER ◽  
DEAN C. DELIS
Keyword(s):  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Inferential Reasoning ◽  
Discourse Comprehension ◽  
Frontal Lobe Lesions ◽  
Word Context ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right

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.)

Bihemispheric Language: How the Two Hemispheres Collaborate in the Processing of Language

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman D. Cook
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Linguistic Processing ◽  
Figures Of Speech ◽  
Language Functions ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Level Of Understanding ◽  
The Right

Speech production in most people is strongly lateralized to the left hemisphere (LH), but language understanding is generally a bilateral activity. At every level of linguistic processing that has been investigated experimentally, the right hemisphere (RH) has been found to make characteristic contributions, from the processing of the affective aspects of intonation, through the appreciation of word connotations, the decoding of the meaning of metaphors and figures of speech, to the understanding of the overall coherency of verbal humour, paragraphs and short stories. If both hemispheres are indeed engaged in linguistic decoding and both processes are required to achieve a normal level of understanding, a central question concerns how the separate language functions on the left and right are integrated. This chapter reviews relevant studies on the hemispheric contributions to language processing and the role of interhemispheric communications in cognition.

An Exploratory TMS Study on Prefrontal Lateralization in Valence Categorization of Facial Expressions

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 282-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Ferrari ◽  
Lucile Gamond ◽  
Marcello Gallucci ◽  
Tomaso Vecchi ◽  
Zaira Cattaneo
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Control Site ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Left Dlpfc ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right

Abstract. Converging neuroimaging and patient data suggest that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is involved in emotional processing. However, it is still not clear whether the DLPFC in the left and right hemisphere is differentially involved in emotion recognition depending on the emotion considered. Here we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to shed light on the possible causal role of the left and right DLPFC in encoding valence of positive and negative emotional facial expressions. Participants were required to indicate whether a series of faces displayed a positive or negative expression, while TMS was delivered over the right DLPFC, the left DLPFC, and a control site (vertex). Interfering with activity in both the left and right DLPFC delayed valence categorization (compared to control stimulation) to a similar extent irrespective of emotion type. Overall, we failed to demonstrate any valence-related lateralization in the DLPFC by using TMS. Possible methodological limitations are discussed.

Bias for the Left Visual Field in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation: Effects of Additional Salient Cues Suggest a Critical Role of Attention

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamila Śmigasiewicz ◽  
Dariusz Asanowicz ◽  
Nicole Westphal ◽  
Rolf Verleger
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Left Visual Field ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Visual Presentation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Posterior Negativity ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right

Everyday experience suggests that people are equally aware of stimuli in both hemifields. However, when two streams of stimuli are rapidly presented left and right, the second target (T2) is better identified in the left hemifield than in the right hemifield. This left visual field (LVF) advantage may result from differences between hemifields in attracting attention. Therefore, we introduced a visual cue shortly before T2 onset to draw attention to one stream. Thus, to identify T2, attention was correctly positioned with valid cues but had to be redirected to the other stream with invalid ones. If the LVF advantage is caused by differences between hemifields in attracting attention, invalid cues should increase, and valid cues should reduce the LVF advantage as compared with neutral cues. This prediction was confirmed. ERP analysis revealed that cues evoked an early posterior negativity, confirming that attention was attracted by the cue. This negativity was earlier with cues in the LVF, which suggests that responses to salient events are faster in the right hemisphere than in the left hemisphere. Valid cues speeded up, and invalid cues delayed T2-evoked N2pc; in addition, valid cues enlarged T2-evoked P3. After N2pc, right-side T2 evoked more sustained contralateral negativity than left T2, least long-lasting after valid cues. Difficulties in identifying invalidly cued right T2 were reflected in prematurely ending P3 waveforms. Overall, these data provide evidence that the LVF advantage is because of different abilities of the hemispheres in shifting attention to relevant events in their contralateral hemifield.

Troubles de l'orientation spatiale dans une épreuve de recherche d'itinéraire lors des lésions corticales unilaterales

Perception ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Hécaen ◽  
C Tzortzis ◽  
M C Masure
Keyword(s):  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Parietal Lobe ◽  
Cortical Lesions ◽  
Route Finding ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Parietal Lesion

Previous studies on brain-damaged patients have shown impairments in orientation. When the results have been based on a route-finding test the impairment was found in both left and right parietal lesion groups, while when maze tests have been used, the impairment correlated clearly only with lesions of the right hemisphere. In the present study the route-finding test was given to 77 right-handed patients with unilateral cortical lesions (33 right-sided, and 44 left-sided), and to 24 controls. In order to evaluate the possible influence of kinesthetic afferents, the test was carried out under two different conditions: active (walking) and passive (in a pushchair). The results show the performances of subjects with lesions on the left side are significantly poorer than those of the controls, but better than those of subjects with lesions on the right side. For both groups the impairment associated with the lesion is the same under active and passive conditions, which does not support the hypothesis of the possible role of the kinesthetic afferents. Posterior lesions produce significantly more failures in both groups. The importance of the parietal lobe, however, was clearly seen only in subjects with lesions on the right side.

Role of Anterior and Posterior Attention Networks in Hemispheric Asymmetries during Lexical Decisions

1991 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 313-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsuko Nakagawa
Keyword(s):  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Visual Fields ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Attention Networks ◽  
Priming Task ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right ◽  
Prime Target

The role of the left and right hemisphere was examined during semantic priming by antonyms, remote associates, and unrelated words. Targets presented directly to the left hemisphere showed an early facilitation and a late developing inhibition, while targets presented directly to the right hemisphere showed a late developing facilitation of strong and weak associations and little evidence of inhibition. When a visual cue was given prior to each target word, reaction times were facilitated equally in both visual fields and for all prime target relationships. When the priming task was combined with shadowing, reaction times generally increased and all evidence of inhibition in left hemisphere processing disappeared. This supported the idea that the inhibition found in the left hemisphere was due to its interaction with the anterior attention network.

scholarly journals Parietal area BA7 integrates motor programs for reaching, grasping, and bimanual coordination

2017 ◽  
Vol 117 (2) ◽  
pp. 624-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ada Le ◽  
Michael Vesia ◽  
Xiaogang Yan ◽  
J. Douglas Crawford ◽  
Matthias Niemeier
Keyword(s):  
Bimanual Coordination ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Brodmann Area ◽  
Reach To Grasp ◽  
Area 7 ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Human Participants ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Brain

Skillful interaction with the world requires that the brain uses a multitude of sensorimotor programs and subroutines, such as for reaching, grasping, and the coordination of the two body halves. However, it is unclear how these programs operate together. Networks for reaching, grasping, and bimanual coordination might converge in common brain areas. For example, Brodmann area 7 (BA7) is known to activate in disparate tasks involving the three types of movements separately. Here, we asked whether BA7 plays a key role in integrating coordinated reach-to-grasp movements for both arms together. To test this, we applied transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to disrupt BA7 activity in the left and right hemispheres, while human participants performed a bimanual size-perturbation grasping task using the index and middle fingers of both hands to grasp a rectangular object whose orientation (and thus grasp-relevant width dimension) might or might not change. We found that TMS of the right BA7 during object perturbation disrupted the bimanual grasp and transport/coordination components, and TMS over the left BA7 disrupted unimanual grasps. These results show that right BA7 is causally involved in the integration of reach-to-grasp movements of the two arms. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our manuscript describes a role of human Brodmann area 7 (BA7) in the integration of multiple visuomotor programs for reaching, grasping, and bimanual coordination. Our results are the first to suggest that right BA7 is critically involved in the coordination of reach-to-grasp movements of the two arms. The results complement previous reports of right-hemisphere lateralization for bimanual grasps.

Neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric perspectives on maternal cradling preferences

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 170-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jechil S. Sieratzki ◽  
Bencie Woll
Keyword(s):  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Communication Behaviour ◽  
Social Attachment ◽  
Left Handed ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Hemisphere Dominance ◽  
The Right ◽  
Mother’S Voice

SUMMARYObjective – To assess competing explanations for the universal preference of mothers to cradle infants on their left side and to propose a relation to hemispheric asymmetry for social attachment and communication behaviour. Methods – A review of observational, experimental, physiological, psychological, neuro-physiological, and neuro-psychological studies, including new findings on the cradling behaviour of mothers with auditory or visual impairments. Results – A significant left-cradling bias is observed in both right- and left-handed mothers which cannot adequately be explained by arguments based on handedness or closer contact to the soothing sound of the maternal heartbeat. Observations of primate behaviour have led to the suggestion that the left-cradling bias may be related to a left visual field (right hemisphere) advantage for monitoring an infant's facial expressions of distress. However, more than just monitoring, cradling subserves the mother's connection with the infant. For that reason, we have suggested that left cradling might be related to a right hemisphere specialisation for emotional communication, i.e. the speech melody, smiles, signals, and stroking which mothers use to interact with their infants. Studies of mother-infant interaction show that the sound of the mother's voice is more soothing when cradling on the left, more stimulating when cradling on the right. Cradling laterality may thus be related to emotional state and behavioural intent. There is also evidence to suggest that left cradling is linked to a special role of the right hemisphere in social attachment behaviour. This function may be disturbed in mothers with postnatal depression who show abnormal right hemisphere activity. Conclusion – Cradling embodies the symbiotic relationship between mother and infant; various lines of evidence support the suggestion that the universal preference of mothers to cradle infants on their left side is related to a right hemisphere dominance for social attachment and communication behaviour.

scholarly journals The Right Hemisphere Is Responsible for the Greatest Differences in Human Brain Response to High-Arousing Emotional versus Neutral Stimuli: A MEG Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 960
Author(s):  
Mina Kheirkhah ◽  
Philipp Baumbach ◽  
Lutz Leistritz ◽  
Otto W. Witte ◽  
Martin Walter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Brain Response ◽  
Whole Brain ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
The Right ◽  
Healthy Participants

Studies investigating human brain response to emotional stimuli—particularly high-arousing versus neutral stimuli—have obtained inconsistent results. The present study was the first to combine magnetoencephalography (MEG) with the bootstrapping method to examine the whole brain and identify the cortical regions involved in this differential response. Seventeen healthy participants (11 females, aged 19 to 33 years; mean age, 26.9 years) were presented with high-arousing emotional (pleasant and unpleasant) and neutral pictures, and their brain responses were measured using MEG. When random resampling bootstrapping was performed for each participant, the greatest differences between high-arousing emotional and neutral stimuli during M300 (270–320 ms) were found to occur in the right temporo-parietal region. This finding was observed in response to both pleasant and unpleasant stimuli. The results, which may be more robust than previous studies because of bootstrapping and examination of the whole brain, reinforce the essential role of the right hemisphere in emotion processing.

The role of visual experience for spatial numerical associations

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Proulx ◽  
Achille Pasqualotto ◽  
Shuichiro Taya
Keyword(s):  
Visual Experience ◽  
Opposite Effect ◽  
Random Number Generation ◽  
Number Line ◽  
Mental Number Line ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Congenitally Blind ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right

The topographic representation of space interacts with the mental representation of number. Evidence for such number–space relations have been reported in both synaesthetic and non-synaesthetic participants. Thus far most studies have only examined related effects in sighted participants. For example, the mental number line increases in magnitude from left to right in sighted individuals (Loetscher et al., 2008, Curr. Biol.). What is unclear is whether this association arises from innate mechanisms or requires visual experience early in life to develop in this way. Here we investigated the role of visual experience for the left to right spatial numerical association using a random number generation task in congenitally blind, late blind, and blindfolded sighted participants. Participants orally generated numbers randomly whilst turning their head to the left and right. Sighted participants generated smaller numbers when they turned their head to the left than to the right, consistent with past results. In contrast, congenitally blind participants generated smaller numbers when they turned their head to the right than to the left, exhibiting the opposite effect. The results of the late blind participants showed an intermediate profile between that of the sighted and congenitally blind participants. Visual experience early in life is therefore necessary for the development of the spatial numerical association of the mental number line.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document