Abstract
The processing of words and pictures representing actions and objects was tested in 21 aphasic patients and 20 healthy controls across three word production tasks: picture-naming (PN), single word reading (WR) and word repetition (WRP). Analysis 1 targeted task and lexical category (noun-verb), revealing worse performance on PN and verb items for both patients and control participants. For Analysis 2 we used data collected in a concurrent gesture norming study to re-categorize the noun-verb items along hand imagery parameters (i.e., objects that can/cannot be manipulated and actions which do/do not involve fine hand movements). Here, patients displayed relative difficulty with the 'manipulable' items, while controls displayed the opposite pattern. Therefore, whereas the noun-verb distinction resulted simply in lower verb accuracy across groups, the 'manipulability' distinction revealed a 'double-dissociation' between patients and control participants. These results carry implications for theories of embodiment, lexico-semantic dissociations, and the organization of meaning in the brain.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 79-94 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Brain and Language |
Volume | 100 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 2007 |
Keywords
- Aphasia
- Double-dissociation
- Embodiment
- Manipulability
- Noun-verb processing
- Picture-naming
- Word-reading
- Word-repetition
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
- Neuroscience(all)