Pragmatic disorders of verbal communication

Verbal communication impairments frequently follow damage to the right cerebral hemisphere. These deficits are usually underestimated because RHD patients are not routinely referred to speech therapists. The nature of pragmatic disorders in verbal communication in RHD patients still remains to be clarified. In particular, it is still unclear whether these impairments are language-specific or attention-specific (e.g. an attentional deficit with respect to verbal cues only, which hinders the ability to go beyond the literal meaning of sentences), or should to be interpreted as an expression of a wider impairment in processing complex materials. Further research is needed to properly quantify the incidence of verbal communication disorders in RHD patients and to understand how pragmatic competence is organized in the brain.