DISINTEGRATION OF HIGHER LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS IN PATIENTS WITH RIGHT HEMISPHERE DAMAGE
Journal Title: Acta Neuropsychologica - Year 2010, Vol 8, Issue 2
Abstract
Clinical observations indicate that patients with right hemisphere damage (RHD) do not show clinical symptoms of aphasia, but still experience serious disturbances in their personal, family, professional and social lives, connected with a certain, not precisely specified disruption of communication. The purpose of our research was to determine the essence of these disturbances. The study comprised of 12 patients after right hemisphere stroke, including 6 with the primary lesion in the frontal lobe, and 6 in the parietal lobe. The patients’ conversations during therapy were recorded and transcribed, and then analyzed using the GSP method (Generic Structural Potential), modified by the authors in the spirit of ethnographic research. The communication problems in this group of patients were related to disturbances of pragmatics. The most frequently en - countered disturbances involved various social behaviors, both linguistic and non-linguistic, including initiating, continuing and ending conversation in a socially unacceptable fashion, difficulties in emotional prosody, and mimicry and gesticulation incongruent with the content of the utterance. These disturbances occurred in both groups (frontal and parietal RHD), although the profile was slightly different for each group. The complaints of RHD patients and their families concerning their relatively frequent communication problems are related to the occurrence of disturbances of pragmatics. These disturbances have a significant negative impact on the way RHD patients function in society, and therefore appropriate rehabilitation is needed.
Authors and Affiliations
Maria Pachalska, Natalia Wachowicz, Mariola Bidzan
Keywords
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