Comprehensibility and neural substrate of communicative gestures in severe aphasia

The relationship between co-speech gesture production and macrolinguistic discourse abilities in people with focal brain injury

“…Only a few studies have investigated specific brain areas associated with spontaneous gesture production (e.g., Bernard et al, 2015; Göksun et al, 2013, 2015; Hogrefe et al, 2017). Gesture production after brain damage is frequently investigated in terms of comprehensibility or quality of gestures (Hogrefe et al, 2017) or for a specific linguistic category (e.g., spatial language gestures in Göksun et al, 2013, 2015).…”

“…Gesture production after brain damage is frequently investigated in terms of comprehensibility or quality of gestures (Hogrefe et al, 2017) or for a specific linguistic category (e.g., spatial language gestures in Göksun et al, 2013, 2015). Studies on neural correlates of gestures usually rely on settings where people produce pantomimes on command or tool-related gestures (e.g., Buxbaum, Shapiro & Coslett; Häberling, Corballis, & Corballis, 2016).…”

“…Thus, greater conceptual demands could result in more gestures (Alibali, Kita, & Young, 2000; Hostetter, Alibali, & Kita, 2007; Kita, Alibali, & Chu, 2017). This model can accommodate compensation, because spontaneous gestures might provide an alternative means of communication for the existing conceptual message when the individual cannot retrieve the appropriate words (Göksun et al, 2013; Göksun et al, 2015; Hogrefe et al, 2017). …”

“…Ahlsén, 1991; Akhavan et al, 2017; Cicone et al, 1979; Dipper et al, 2011; Hadar et al, 1998; Pritchard et al, 2013; Wartenburger et al, 2010; Wilkinson, 2013), relatively few studies have investigated specific brain areas associated with spontaneous co-speech gesture production (e.g. Göksun et al, 2013, 2015; Hogrefe et al, 2017). …”

“…Previous research also suggests that damage to the inferior frontal lobe, anterior temporal lobe, and supramarginal and angular gyrus of the left hemisphere are associated with deficiencies in the production of gestures that carry semantic content (Göksun et al, 2015; Hogrefe et al, 2017). Damage to the middle frontal gyrus and posterior middle temporal gyrus of the left hemisphere is associated with deficiencies in tool-related gesture production.…”