The Right Hemisphere’s Role in Action Word Processing: a Double Case Study.

Abstract

Word category-specific deficits were investigated in two patients with right hemispheric lesions and hemiparesis affecting the left extremities. Words from three categories, action verbs, nouns with strong visual associations and nouns with both strong action and visual associations, were presented in a lexical decision task. The stimulus categories were matched for word length and frequency. In both patients, responses to action verbs were slowed and/or less accurate compared with the other word categories. This was so even in the patient with a minor lesion in the motor, pre-motor and somatosensory areas of the hand representation. Control subjects did not show category differences when tested with the same stimulus materials. These results are consistent with the view that the cortical areas involved in the programming of body movements, even those in the hemisphere not dominant for language, specifically contribute to and are necessary for the processing of words referring to such movements. As an alternative, the affected brain areas may be of particular relevance for the processing of words from the lexical category of verbs. The results are consistent with a brain model of language based on Hebb's cell assembly concept.

Word-category specific deficits after lesions in the right hemisphere

“…The present results also replicate the finding reported earlier that right frontal lesions can impair the processing of action verbs more than that of visually-related nouns [32,45]. In the earlier studies, data obtained from patients with right-hemispheric lesions were contrasted with the performance of a control group matched for age and level of education.…”

“…Additional involvement of the parietal lobes was present in 11 patients, and perisylvian lesions including inferior parietal and superior temporal areas was seen in 8 patients. In an earlier study [32], we found that small lesions restricted to the right motor and premotor cortex and larger right-perisylvian lesions including motor, premotor and inferior prefrontal areas caused the same category-specific deficits in word processing. Therefore, we grouped these patients together here.…”

“…The "frontal" group included patients with small lesions in the fronto-central motor cortices, but also patients with large perisylvian lesions in whom inferior parietal and superior temporal areas were affected, in addition to frontal sites. We justify this grouping as follows: (1) in an earlier study on word-category specific deficits after right-hemispheric lesions, we found significant and equally pronounced processing deficits for action verbs in two patients with small fronto-central and larger perisylvian lesions [32]; (2) in the present study, similar patterns of action verb deficits were seen in the both subgroups (small fronto-central lesion: visually-related nouns-87.1%, bimodal nouns-85.3%, action verbs-74.9%; large perisylvian lesion: visually-related nouns-88.7%, bimodal nouns-90.0%, action verbs-81.7%). The grouping of patients with inferior temporal and occipital lesions was motivated by the what-stream of visual object processing (cf.…”

Putting Language Back in the Body: Speech and Gesture on Three Time Frames

“…Moreover, damage to the sensory and motor cortex disrupts linguistic processing. Neininger and Pulvermueller (2001) studied a patient with a minor lesion on the motor, premotor, and somatosensory areas associated with the hand in the right hemisphere. They discovered that the patient had slower and less accurate responses to action verbs compared with the other word categories.…”

What can autism teach us about the role of sensorimotor systems in higher cognition? New clues from studies on language, action semantics, and abstract emotional concept processing

“…Vice versa, action word processing may impact on specific motor mechanisms, with effects visible in behaviour and in electrophysiological brain recordings 2 Fischer & Zwaan, 2008;Glenberg & Kaschak, 2003;Ibanez et al, 2012;Pulvermü ller, Hauk, Nikulin, & Ilmoniemi, 2005;Rueschemeyer, Lindemann, van Elk, & Bekkering, 2009;Schomers & Pulvermü ller, 2016;Schomers, Kirilina, Weigand, Bajbouj, & Pulvermü ller, 2015;Shebani & Pulvermü ller, 2013). Fifth, and finally, movement disorders and clinical impairments to motor systems are associated with specific processing impairments or abnormalities for action-related words which call on action knowledge in the retrieval of their meaning (Bak & Chandran, 2012;Boulenger et al, 2008;Cardona et al, 2014;Cotelli et al, 2006;García & Ibañez, 2014;Grossman et al, 2008;Kemmerer, 2015;Neininger & Pulvermü ller, 2001Pulvermü ller et al, 2010). 3 Whilst the effects of motor damage on action word processing have been thoroughly documented in many populations with acquired brain damage or disease states, we here examine grounded cognition and action semantics through the lens of a very different type of movement disorder.…”