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Phrase comprehension after brain damage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Rita Sloan Berndt*
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University
Alfonso Caramazza
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University
*
Dr. Rita Sloan Berndt, Department of Psychology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218

Abstract

Comprehension of six dimensional adjectives was found to be intact in groups of left hemisphere-damaged, right hemisphere-damaged and neurologically normal patients. Phrases with those adjectives were interpreted quite differently by left hemisphere-damaged patients than by the other two groups, and a subgroup of left-damaged patients appeared to be responsible for that group's deviant responses to phrases such as slightly bigger. All patients in the left-damaged group had some difficulty with negative phrases such as not big, however. Patients with right hemisphere-damage had difficulty interpreting only negative phrases with small. Results are interpreted with reference to Luria's discussion of semantic aphasia, and with regard to recent findings concerning the role of the right hemisphere in language comprehension.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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