title: The comprehension of ambiguous idioms in aphasic patients.
abstract: The ability to understand ambiguous idioms was assessed in 15 aphasic patients with preserved comprehension at a single word level. A string-to-word matching task was used. Patients were requested to choose one among four alternatives: a word associated with the figurative meaning of the idiom string; a word semantically associate with the last constituent of the idiom string; and two unrelated words. The results showed that patients' performance was impaired with respect to a group of matched controls, with patients showing a frontal and/or temporal lesion being the most impaired. A significant number of semantically associate errors were produced, suggesting an impairment of inhibition mechanisms and/or of recognition/activation of the idiomatic meaning.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Università di Modena e Reggio-Emilia, Italy.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cacciari
authors.forename: Fabiola
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Reati
authors.forename: Maria Rosa
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Colombo
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Padovani
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rizzo
authors.forename: Costanza
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Papagno
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001037:Aphasia / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011578:Psycholinguistics / Q000379:methods*; D012660:Semantics; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric