The ability to perceive and express emotional, as well as number of linguistic prosodic qualities of speech was tested in 20 Swedish-speaking patients with right-sided cortical, as well as purely subcortical brain infarcts, and in 18 normal controls. The infarcts were assessed by clinical neurological examination, and by CT, EEG, and measurements of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). In the patients the identification of emotional messages was disturbed, as well as the identification and production of several linguistic prosodic qualities. The study supports the claim that prosodic impairment could be linguistic in nature, and not secondary to affective disorder. The total degree of anatomical and functional disturbance of the right hemisphere played a role for both the ability to identify emotional messages and for identification of two of the linguistic prosodic qualities tested. However, it was not possible to find support for the hypothesis that the organization of prosody in the right hemisphere mirrors that of propositional speech on the left side.

No abstract

No abstract

The ability to perceive and express prosodic qualities of speech was tested in 21 patients with a single focal ischaemic disturbance of the right hemisphere, 14 patients having an infarct and 7 transient ischaemic attacks, and in 21 age‐matched normal controls. All patients were predominantly right‐handed. None showed signs of aphasia. Pure tone audiometry showed acceptable hearing for speech. The cerebral lesions were assessed by clinical neurologic examination, and by CT, EEG and measurement of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) using intravenous 133‐xenon. The prosodia test included items testing: the ability to perceive accentual and emotional qualities of speech, and the ability to express and vary such qualities. The test did not discriminate between the patients and the controls, although some patients had large right‐sided lesions. This negative finding indicates that aprosody in patients with brain lesions appears more difficult to detect than has previously been assumed. Highly sensitive tests are most likely required.

No abstract