Related Experiment Videos
Spared comprehension of emotional prosody in a patient with global aphasia
A M Barrett1, G P Crucian, A M Raymer
1Department of Neurology, University of Florida College of Medicine, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Gainesville 32610-0236, USA.
Background:
Several studies have demonstrated that patients with right hemisphere damage, when compared with left-hemisphere damaged controls, are impaired at comprehending emotional prosody. Critics of these studies, however, note that selection may have been biased because left-hemisphere-damaged subjects had good verbal comprehension.
Objective:
To learn whether a subject with a large left hemisphere stroke and global aphasia could comprehend emotional prosody in spoken material.
Method:
The authors formally tested speech and language with the Western Aphasia Battery and comprehension of emotional prosody and emotional facial expression with the Florida Affect Battery.
Results:
The patient could not perform verbally mediated tests but demonstrated spared ability to match emotional prosody to emotional facial expressions under a variety of conditions.
Conclusions:
These observations further support the idea that verbal and emotional communication systems are independent and mediated by different hemispheres.