Biomedical subjects

A M Bihrle

Publications and source records attributed to A M Bihrle.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1990

Appreciation of metaphoric alternative word meanings by left and right brain-damaged patients.

Appreciation of metaphoric and nonmetaphoric alternative word meanings was assessed in 19 aphasic, left (LHD) and 15 non-aphasic, right (RHD) hemisphere brain-damaged stroke patients. With the one exception in the aphasic group, all patients were male. In an unspeeded sorting task, subjects responded on the basis of less frequent, alternative meanings of polysemous target words. Targets were either polysemous adjectives (e.g. "warm") having metaphoric alternative meanings (loving) or polysemous nouns (e.g., "pen") having non-metaphoric alternative meanings (writing implement, cage). Both patient groups performed worse overall than a group of nonbrain-damaged control subjects. Relative to the RHD patients, LHD patients showed a spared appreciation of metaphoric alternative meanings. In addition, LHD, but not RHD, patients performed better on metaphoric adjective trials when there was high similarity between a word's dominant and (metaphoric) alternative meaning. The results suggest a pervasive insensitivity of RHD patients to alternative interpretations of linguistic units, and a special role for the intact right hemisphere in lexical-semantic processes related to metaphor comprehension.

Aged↗

PubMed1989

Seeing either the forest or the trees: dissociation in visuospatial processing.

Traditionally, visuospatial processing has resisted fractionation into functional substrates. Recently, however, it has been shown that the brain honors the distinction between global and local processing of hierarchical visual stimuli: unilateral left hemisphere brain-damaged subjects were impaired in their ability to draw the local forms of a hierarchical design, whereas right hemisphere-damaged patients demonstrated the opposite pattern (Delis, Robertson, & Efron, 1986; Delis, Kiefner, & Fridlund, 1988). The present study reports a similar pronounced dissociation in hierarchical visual processing but in quite different populations and in the absence of focal structural brain damage. Mentally retarded subjects with Williams Syndrome are considerably more impaired in global relative to local analysis, whereas subjects with Down Syndrome display the opposite pattern. These results, in concert with other neuropsychological data, are provocative because they suggest that certain cognitive deficits may cluster even in the absence of frank cerebral damage, just as they cluster following insult to one hemisphere. These findings should provide clues to the interrelationship of components of visuospatial processing and other cognitive functions.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1986

Inference deficits in right brain-damaged patients.

The inferential reasoning ability of right hemisphere-damaged (RHD) patients was tested by presenting pairs of sentences which were to be treated as single, integrated units. The two sentences treated together made one interpretation likely (a correct inference); one of the sentences in isolation encouraged a different interpretation (an incorrect inference). The position of the misleading sentence was systematically varied. Results showed that, in contrast to normal controls, RHD patients have more trouble answering inference questions, especially those concerning incorrect inferences, than answering questions about the factual content of the passages. Also, RHD patients made significantly more errors when the misleading information was contained in the first rather than in the second sentence; this finding indicates that these patients have difficulty revising previously acquired knowledge in light of new information. These results suggest the impairment of several components of normal discourse processing subsequent to right hemisphere brain damage.

Brain Injuries↗

PubMed1986

Basic and subordinate level naming by agrammatic and fluent aphasic patients.

Agrammatic Broca's and fluent (Wernicke's and anomic) aphasics were asked to name objects depicted in outline drawings as a means of testing their ability to identify and to name objects at the basic (e.g., "chair") and subordinate (e.g., "beach chair") levels. Patients from both groups had difficulty producing subordinate names, but successfully conveyed subordinate level identifications using a variety of compensatory strategies. This report supports a separation of the naming process from the conceptual operations and structures needed to identify objects. In addition, the two aphasic groups used different strategies to circumvent their naming difficulties. Fluent patients sometimes conveyed subordinate level identifications without any mention of a basic name. Agrammatic patients in particular avoided use of pre-posed modifiers in their compensatory responses. The composition of most subordinate terms (modifier plus basic name) is discussed in relation to the normal naming process and how it is disrupted in aphasia.

Aged↗

PubMed1986

Comprehension of humorous and nonhumorous materials by left and right brain-damaged patients.

Right hemisphere-damaged (RHD) and left hemisphere-damaged (LHD) aphasic patients were tested on a nonverbal cartoon completion task that included a humorous (Joke) and a nonhumorous (Story) condition. In both conditions, RHD patients performed worse than LHD patients. More importantly, the qualitative difference between the errors produced by the two groups suggests that right and left hemisphere brain damage impairs different components of narrative ability. RHD patients showed a preserved sensitivity to the surprise element of humor, and a diminished ability to establish coherence. Conversely, LHD patients, when they erred, showed an impaired sensitivity to the surprise element of humor, and a preserved ability to establish coherence by integrating content across parts of a narrative. These results suggest that the observed humor comprehension deficits of RHD patients result specifically from right hemisphere disease and not from brain damage irrespective of locus. The performances of the RHD and LHD patients groups together support a separation of narrative ability from the traditional aspects of language ability typically disrupted in aphasia.

Aphasia↗