Dominant-Side Intracarotid Amobarbital Spares Comprehension of Word Meaning

Amobarbital Effects and Lateralized Brain Function

“…Hart, Lesser, Fisher, Schwerdt, Bryan & Gordon (1991) extended this conclusion to specific aspects of linguistic function (i.e., comprehension of word meaning). These authors presented a picture-word association task during the period of hemispheric anesthesia.…”

Cerebral Laterality for Famous Proper Nouns: Visual Recognition by Normal Subjects

“…LH association with lexical processing has also been found in studies of split-brain patients (Sidtis, Volpe, Holtzman, Wilson, & Gazzaniga, 1981;Zaidel, 1977) and observations in Wada testing (Loring, Meador, Lee, & King, 1992;Loring, Meador, Lee, Murro, Smith, Flanigin, Gallagher, & King, 1990). However, some ability of the RH to process lexical items, especially those that are short, frequent, and concrete, is consistently reported in the split-brain studies mentioned above, in visual half-field studies (Day, 1977;Mannhaupt, 1983;Chiarello, 1988aChiarello, , 1988bChiarello, , 1988cBurgess & Livesay, 1998), in brain damage (Van Lancker, 1988;Code, 1987;Kinsbourne, 1971;Czopf, 1981;Cummings, Benson, Walsh, & Levine, 1979;Landis, Graves, & Goodglass, 1982;Landis, Regard, Graves, & Goodglass, 1983), in Wada testing (Hart, Lesser, Fisher, Schwerdt, Bryan, & Gordon, 1991), and in adult left hemispherectomy (Burkland & Smith, 1977). Several studies report that the RH processes lexical items in different ways from the LH (Drews, 1987;Landis & Regard, 1988;Rodel, Cook, Regard, & Landis, 1992;Chiarello, 1988b;TenHouten, Hoppe, Bogen, & Walter, 1986).…”

Language Lateralization in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: A Comparison between fMRI and the Wada Test

“…Although verbal semantic knowledge has been attributed to left hemisphere dominance (61), semantic decision makes less use of language functions with strong lateralization to the left perisylvian area than do paradigms based mainly on syntax, phonemic attributes, or lexical retrieval. Despite being considered a gold‐standard method, several concerns exist with the Wada test, such as its lack of standardization, the waning drug effect, lack of differentiation between productive and comprehensive language modalities, and its questionable ability to specify the laterality of visuoverbal semantic relatedness (62) or to exclude residual left‐sided language function despite apparent right‐sided dominance (63). Of relevance for the findings of this study, large differences in the prevalence of mixed speech dominance have been found on the IAT, possibly because of a lack of criteria for how to diagnose bilateral speech (64,65).…”