Right Hemisphere Language Comprehension: Perspectives From Cognitive NeuroscienceMark Jung Beeman, Christine Chiarello The statement, "The Right Hemisphere (RH) processes language"--while not exactly revolutionary--still provokes vigorous debate. It often elicits the argument that anything the RH does with language is not linguistic but "paralinguistic." The resistance to the notion of RH language processing persists despite the fact that even the earliest observers of Left Hemisphere (LH) language specialization posited some role for the RH in language processing, and evidence attesting to various RH language processes has steadily accrued for more than 30 years. In this volume, chapters pertain to a wide, but by no means, exhaustive set of language comprehension processes for which RH contributions have been demonstrated. The sections are organized around these processes, beginning with initial decoding of written or spoken input, proceeding through semantic processing of single words and sentences, up to comprehension of more complex discourse, as well as problem solving. The chapters assembled here should begin to melt this resistance to evidence of RH language processing. This volume's main goal is to compile evidence about RH language function from a scattered literature. The editorial commentaries concluding each section highlight the relevance of these phenomena for psycholinguistic and neuropsychological theory, and discuss similarities and apparent discrepancies in the findings reported in individual chapters. In the final chapter, common themes that emerge from the enterprise of studying RH language and future challenge for the field are reviewed. Although all chapters focus only on "typical" laterality of right handed people, this work provides a representative sample of the current state of the art in RH language research. Important features include: * a wide range of coverage from speech perception and reading through complex discourse comprehension and problem-solving; * research presented from both empirical and theoretical perspectives; and * commentaries and conclusions integrating findings and theories across sub-domains, and speculating on future directions of the field. |
From inside the book
Page ix
... language processing persists despite the fact that even the earliest observers of left hemisphere (LH) language specialization (John Hughlings Jackson and Paul Broca; see Harrington, 1987) posited some role for the RH in language processing ...
... language processing persists despite the fact that even the earliest observers of left hemisphere (LH) language specialization (John Hughlings Jackson and Paul Broca; see Harrington, 1987) posited some role for the RH in language processing ...
Page x
... language and their neural substrates is proving very fruitful. Thus it is rather ironic that this theoretical evolution has revealed RH involvement in language comprehension. Evidence supporting RH participation in language processing ...
... language and their neural substrates is proving very fruitful. Thus it is rather ironic that this theoretical evolution has revealed RH involvement in language comprehension. Evidence supporting RH participation in language processing ...
Page xi
... processing characteristics—that is, the brain functions—that underlie optimal processing for different types of information and tasks (for most language functions, this appears to be the LH). In other words, it is helpful to look at the ...
... processing characteristics—that is, the brain functions—that underlie optimal processing for different types of information and tasks (for most language functions, this appears to be the LH). In other words, it is helpful to look at the ...
Page 4
... process, with each specialized to analyze the auditory signal in slightly different ways. The left hemisphere is dominant, not because it has a monopolistic role in this process, but because its particular specialization yields the most ...
... process, with each specialized to analyze the auditory signal in slightly different ways. The left hemisphere is dominant, not because it has a monopolistic role in this process, but because its particular specialization yields the most ...
Page 6
... processing problems, and constraints garnered from auditory physiology are based on general principles that do not distinguish between the operation of the left and right hemispheres. Nonetheless, there have been some proposals ...
... processing problems, and constraints garnered from auditory physiology are based on general principles that do not distinguish between the operation of the left and right hemispheres. Nonetheless, there have been some proposals ...
Contents
Lexical and SentenceLevel Semantics | 140 |
Discourse Processing and Problem Solving | 254 |
Author Index | 391 |
Subject Index | 405 |
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Right Hemisphere Language Comprehension: Perspectives from Cognitive ... Mark Beeman,Christine Chiarello No preview available - 1998 |
Common terms and phrases
ability activation aphasia auditory Banich Baynes Beeman behavioral Borod Brain and Language brain-damaged patients Brownell Burgess cerebral hemispheres chapter Chiarello coarse semantic coding Cognitive Neuroscience commissurotomy component context corpus callosum correlated Cortex Coslett damage deep dyslexia deficits dichotic listening discourse dyslexia effects emotional evidence experiment Experimental Psychology function Gardner Gazzaniga Hellige hemi hemisphere differences hemispherectomy hemispheric asymmetries hemispheric specialization hypothesis impaired inferences influence insight problem integration interhemispheric interaction interpretation involved Ioanette journal language comprehension language processing laterality left hemisphere lexical decision lexical semantic linguistic Lund lvf-RH mediated msec Neurology Neuropsychology normal patients with RHD pattern perception performance phoneme phonological presented reading reflect RHD patients right hemisphere role rvf-LH Saffran semantic information semantic priming semantic processing semantic relations sentence single words speech split-brain stimuli studies suggest syntactic target words task tion trials verbal visual field word meanings word recognition Zaidel