Processing of basic speech acts following localized brain damage: A new light on the neuroanatomy of language

Nachum Soroker*, Asa Kasher, Rachel Giora, Gila Batori, Cecilia Corn, Mali Gil, Eran Zaidel

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

We examined the effect of localized brain lesions on processing of the basic speech acts (BSAs) of question, assertion, request, and command. Both left and right cerebral damage produced significant deficits relative to normal controls, and left brain damaged patients performed worse than patients with right-sided lesions. This finding argues against the common conjecture that the right hemisphere of most right-handers plays a dominant role in natural language pragmatics. In right-hemisphere damaged patients, there was no correlation between location and extent of lesion in perisylvian cortex and performance on BSAs. By contrast, processing of the different BSAs by left hemisphere-damaged patients was strongly affected by perisylvian lesion location, with each BSA showing a distinct pattern of localization. This finding raises the possibility that the classical left perisylvian localization of language functions, as measured by clinical aphasia batteries, partly reflects the localization of the BSAs required to perform these functions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)214-217
Number of pages4
JournalBrain and Cognition
Volume57
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2005

Keywords

  • Aphasia
  • Neuroanatomy
  • Pragmatics
  • Speech acts
  • Stroke

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Processing of basic speech acts following localized brain damage: A new light on the neuroanatomy of language'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this