Processing of metaphoric and non-metaphoric alternative meanings of words after right- and left-hemispheric lesion.
This study examines the specificity of the contribution of the right hemisphere to the processing of metaphoric meaning of words. Ten right- and 10 left-hemisphere-damaged subjects, and 20 normal control subjects were submitted to: (1) a word-triad task where they had to associate alternative metaphoric and non-metaphoric words to a target word, and to (2) a word-dyad task where they had to decide whether or not there was a semantic relationship between two words. The two tasks aimed at differentiating between the subjects' preference for a given semantic meaning versus a genuine semantic deficit for a particular meaning. Results revealed that both right- and left-hemisphere-damaged groups presented a genuine semantic deficit for the processing of metaphoric meaning. The absence of a double dissociation between the two brain-damaged groups does not support the hypothesis of a specific contribution of the right-hemisphere to the processing of metaphoric meaning of words.
Département de Psychologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada.
Louise
L
Gagnon
Pierre
P
Goulet
Francine
F
Giroux
Yves
Y
Joanette
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001037:Aphasia / Q000175:diagnosis; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019365:Metaphor; D008875:Middle Aged; D012660:Semantics; D014825:Vocabulary