Text comprehension after brain injury: left prefrontal lesions affect inference processes

Comprehending language in context requires inferencing, particularly for the establishment of local coherence. In the neurolinguistic literature, an inference deficit after right hemisphere brain damage has been postulated, but clinical observation and imaging data suggest that left-frontal lesions...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNeuropsychology Vol. 16; no. 3; p. 292
Main Authors Ferstl, Evelyn C, Guthke, Thomas, von Cramon, D Yves
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.07.2002
Subjects
Adolescent
Adult
Brain Injuries - complications
Brain Injuries - pathology
Cognition Disorders - diagnosis
Cognition Disorders - etiology
Female
Functional Laterality - physiology
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Middle Aged
Neuropsychological Tests
Prefrontal Cortex - pathology
Random Allocation
Reaction Time
Severity of Illness Index
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Summary:Comprehending language in context requires inferencing, particularly for the establishment of local coherence. In the neurolinguistic literature, an inference deficit after right hemisphere brain damage has been postulated, but clinical observation and imaging data suggest that left-frontal lesions might also result in inference deficits. In the present experiment, 25 nonaphasic patients performed a coherence judgment task requiring them to indicate a pragmatic connection between 2 successively presented sentences. Patients with left-temporal or right-frontal lesions performed the task well. In contrast, patients with left- and bifrontal lesions exhibited the most severe deficit. Both error rates and response times were elevated for coherent trials as compared with incoherent trials. These results confirm that the left-frontal lobe contributes to inference processes.
ISSN:0894-4105
1931-1559
DOI:10.1037/0894-4105.16.3.292