The role of the right hemisphere in the interpretation of figurative aspects of language A positron emission tomography activation study

Bottini, Gabriella; Corcoran, Rhiannon; Sterzi, Roberto; Paulesu, Eraldo; Schenone, P.; Scarpa, Pina; Frackowiak, R. S. J.; Frith, Chris

doi:10.1093/brain/117.6.1241

Cited by 574 publications

(393 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…However, Bottini et al. (1994) compared the activity associated with the comprehension of metaphoric sentences with lexical‐decision tasks; thus, their findings may differ from ours in this study. More recently, Zempleni et al.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 61%

“…However, our present findings were not in agreement with other previous neuroimaging findings (Bottini et al., 1994; Zempleni et al., 2007). Bottini et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, a few studies have reported a crucial role of the RH in interpreting metaphors (Anaki, Faust, & Kravetz, 1998; Bottini et al., 1994; Schmidt & Seger, 2009). In neuropsychology, it is widely accepted that the RH plays a special role in the processing of idiomatic expressions (Van Lancker & Kempler, 1987).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neural correlates of Korean proverb processing: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Kim

Shim

et al. 2017

Brain and Behavior

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IntroductionThe Korean language is based on a syntactic system that is different from other languages. This study investigated the processing area of the Korean proverb in comparison with the literal sentence using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In addition, the effect of opacity and transparency of proverbs on the activation pattern, when familiarity is set to the same condition, was also examined.MethodsThe experimental stimuli included 36 proverbs and 18 literal sentences. A cohort of 15 healthy participants silently read each sentence for 6 s. A total of 18 opaque proverbs, 18 transparent proverbs, and 18 literal sentences were presented pseudo‐randomly in one of three predesigned sequences.ResultsCompared with the literal sentences, a significant activation pattern was observed in the left hemisphere, including the left inferior frontal gyrus, in association with the proverbs. Compared with the transparent proverbs, opaque proverbs elicited more activation in the right supramarginal gyrus and precuneus.ConclusionsOur study confirmed that the left inferior frontal gyrus mediates the retrieval and/or selection of semantic knowledge in the Korean language. The present findings indicated that the right precuneus and the right supramarginal gyrus may be involved in abstract language processing.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 61%

“…However, our present findings were not in agreement with other previous neuroimaging findings (Bottini et al., 1994; Zempleni et al., 2007). Bottini et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neural correlates of Korean proverb processing: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Kim

Shim

et al. 2017

Brain and Behavior

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“…At least one previous study that directly contrasted narrative-level and sentencelevel comprehension found narrative-specific activation in regions such as ATL, posterior MTG, and DMPFC (Xu et al, 2005). However, other studies have observed greater activation in most of these regions when reading or hearing coherent sentences than random word lists (Bottini et al, 1994;Kuperberg et al, 2000;Stowe et al, 1999;Vandenberghe et al, 2002), suggesting that the difference between narrative-and sentence-level comprehension may be quantitative and not qualitative. Alternatively, narrativespecificity may arise at a hemispheric rather than at a regional level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Neural substrates of narrative comprehension and memory

2008

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When reading a narrative, comprehension and retention of information benefit considerably from the use of situation models -coherent representations of the characters, locations, and activities described in the text. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the neural mechanisms supporting situation model processing. Participants read blocks of sentences that were either unrelated to one another or formed coherent narratives. A timecourse-based approach was used to identify regions that differentiated narrative-level comprehension from sentence-level comprehension. Most brain regions that showed modulation of activation during narrative-level comprehension were also modulated to a lesser extent during sentence-level comprehension, suggesting a shared reliance on general coherence-building mechanisms. However, tentative evidence was found for narrativespecific activation in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Additional analyses identified spatiotemporally distinct neural contributions to situation model processing, with posterior parietal regions supporting situation model construction and frontotemporal regions supporting situation model maintenance. Finally, a set of subsequent memory analyses demonstrated that the boost in comprehension and memory performance observed for coherent materials was attributable to the use of integrative situation models rather than lower-level differences in sentence-level or word-level encoding. These results clarify the functional contributions of distinct brain systems to situation model processing and their mapping onto existing psychological models of narrative comprehension.

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“…Author Manuscript when participants comprehend metaphors, which require distant semantic relations to be noted (Bottini et al, 1994). Also, increased signal occurs in the RH when people generate unusual uses of nouns compared to when they generate the first use that comes to mind, as measured both by ERP (Abdullaev & Posner, 1997) and by fMRI (Seger, Desmond, Glover, & Gabrieli, in press).…”

Section: Author Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Right and Left Hemisphere Cooperation for Drawing Predictive and Coherence Inferences during Normal Story Comprehension

Beeman¹,

Bowden²,

2000

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In three experiments, healthy young participants listened to stories promoting inferences and named inference-related test words presented to the right visual field-Left Hemisphere (rvf-LH) or to the left visual field-Right Hemisphere (lvf-RH). Participants showed priming for predictive inferences only for target words presented to the lvf-RH; in contrast, they showed priming for coherence inferences only for target words presented to the rvf-LH. These results, plus the fact that patients with RH brain damage have difficulty drawing coherence inferences and do not show inference-related priming, suggest that information capable of supporting predictive inferences is more likely to be initially activated in the RH than the LH, but following coherence breaks these concepts (now coherence inferences) are completed in the LH. These results are consistent with the theory that the RH engages in relatively coarse semantic coding, which aids full comprehension of discourse.When people comprehend stories, they often make inferences -they assume that some events occurred in the stories, even though those events were not explicitly described. Consider what happens when people read or hear the premise that "The shuttle sat on the ground in the distance, waiting for the signal to be given." If they later read or hear a sentence with a coherence break, that is a sentence that interrupts the logical chain of a story, such as "After a huge roar and a bright flash, the shuttle disappeared into space leaving clouds of smoke in its wake," most people infer that the shuttle was launched. As established decades ago, once comprehenders make inferences, they include these inferences when recalling stories (Glenn, 1978;Paris & Lindauer, 1976;Baggett, 1975), and they have a difficult time distinguishing inferred information from information explicitly stated (Johnson, Bransford, & Solomon, 1973). This suggests that normal comprehenders incorporate some inferences into their representation of the discourse. HHS Public Access Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptAuthor Manuscript Author ManuscriptSome RH-damaged (RHD) patients have difficulty drawing inferences, suggesting that the right hemisphere (RH) may play an important role when comprehenders draw such inferences (Beeman, 1993;Brownell, Potter, Bihrle, & Gardner, 1986). The following experiments explore the idea that concepts necessary for supporting inferences are more likely to be initially activated in the RH than in the LH and that at the coherence break inferences are more likely to be selected-activated strongly enough to reach awareness, to be processed further, or to be output, in the sense proposed by Allport (1987) -in the LH for incorporation into the discourse representation (Beeman, 1993). PREDICTIVE AND COHERENCE INFERENCESIn principle, comprehenders could draw several types of inferences. Comprehenders could make inferences to embellish or elaborate on a story. They could draw inferences to predict upcoming consequences. For example, as soon as people hear tha...

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The role of the right hemisphere in the interpretation of figurative aspects of language A positron emission tomography activation study

Cited by 574 publications

References 33 publications

Neural correlates of Korean proverb processing: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Neural correlates of Korean proverb processing: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Neural substrates of narrative comprehension and memory

Right and Left Hemisphere Cooperation for Drawing Predictive and Coherence Inferences during Normal Story Comprehension

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