Narrative comprehension in adults with right and left hemisphere brain-damage: theme organization.
The effects of delayed presentation of a central theme on the comprehension and interpretation of narratives were investigated in adults with right and left hemisphere brain-damage and normal individuals. The performance of subgroups of the subjects with right and left hemisphere brain-damage also was examined. Right hemisphere brain-damaged groups with anterior and posterior lesions were significantly less accurate and identified significantly fewer central themes when central theme presentation was delayed until the end of a narrative than when the theme was presented at the beginning. Subjects with anterior right hemisphere brain-damage produced significantly more embellishments and confabulations than subjects with posterior damage and non-brain-damaged controls, regardless of theme condition. The performance of non-brain-damaged subjects and subjects with fluent and nonfluent aphasia was unaffected by the organization of the central theme in the narratives.
School of Allied Health Sciences, Department of Speech, Language, and Auditory Pathology, East Carolina University.
M S
MS
Hough
D000368:Aged; D001037:Aphasia / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000523:psychology*; D003210:Concept Formation; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D013067:Speech Perception