Enhanced left frontal involvement during novel metaphor comprehension in schizophrenia: Evidence from functional neuroimaging

Metaphor Processing in Schizophrenia Patients: A Study of Comprehension and Explanation of Metaphors

“…Our general hypothesis, that SZ patients differed from normal controls regarding processing of metaphors, is partly consistent with previous findings which show disturbances both in metaphor comprehension and explanation (Bryan, 2014;Elvevag et al, 2011;Mashal et al, 2013;Mitchell & Crow, 2005;Mossaheb et al, 2014). In our study, the SZ patients matched a metaphor correctly with a sentence explaining it or a picture presenting the meaning, however, they were unable to explain these metaphors.…”

“…Many studies have shown that metaphor comprehension is disturbed in SZ patients in various stages of the illness (Bryan, 2014;Mashal et al, 2013;Mossaheb et al, 2014;Pawełczyk, Kotlicka-Antczak, Łojek, Ruszpel, et al, 2017;. It was also suggested that comprehension of metaphors may not differentiate patients from controls, however, the ability to explain these metaphors may (Pawełczyk, Kotlicka-Antczak, Łojek, Ruszpel, et al, 2017).…”

“…Mossaheb et al (2014) showed that patients with SZ-spectrum disorders exhibit impairments in the recognition and paraphrasing of conventional metaphors and in the generation of novel metaphors, however, cognitive functions as well as negative symptoms might have influenced the results of this study. Patients with SZ also showed reduced comprehension of both novel and conventional metaphors in a study by Mashal, Vishne, Laor, and Titone (2013).…”

Comprehension and Hemispheric Processing of Irony in Schizophrenia

“…The findings suggest functionally altered pathways for language processing in schizophrenia, that is, under-activation of a pre-dominantly left-lateralized frontotemporal network, as well as increased dual hemispheric activation. Indeed, studies that investigated novel metaphor processing (representing the non-salient interpretation) (Kircher et al, 2007; Mashal et al, 2013) have revealed a reversed lateralization in SZ. For instance, the comprehension of novel and conventional metaphors was investigated by Mashal et al (2013).…”

Non Invasive Brain Stimulation to Improve Metaphoric Speech Processing in Schizophrenia: A Pilot Study

“…More recently, a reversed functional lateralization during novel metaphor processing has been found in SCZ, shoving an over activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus compared to HS [13]. A possible explanation is that the inefficient processing of novel metaphors in schizophrenia involves compensatory recruitment of additional brain regions, with an increased BOLD response in some left hemisphere areas than the right ones [13].…”