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Abstract:
Abstract: Recent neuropsychological models postulate that
language is not restricted to two regional centers in the left
hemisphere, but involves widespread cortical areas. However, there
is still a controversy as to whether the hemisphere non-dominant
for language - usually the right - contributes to specific
linguistic processes. According to one view, the non-dominant
hemisphere contributes to the processing of words of certain
classes. If this is correct, a lesion in the right hemisphere may
lead to word class-specific deficits. A group of right-handed
patients with right frontal lesions and hemiparesis affecting the
left extremities underwent a lexical decision test to investigate
processing of different word categories. Lexical access to action
words was substantially impaired compared to matched words of other
categories. Single case studies were performed to further
investigate the relationship between the deficit and the loci of
cortical lesions. These results indicate that those parts of the
cortex involved in the programming of arm and hand movements, even
those in the hemisphere not dominant for language, are involved in
the processing of words referring to such movements.
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