Social cognition of indirect speech: Evidence from Parkinson's Disease

We examined potential neurocognitive mechanisms of indirect speech in support of face management in 28 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and 32 elderly controls with chronic disease. In experiment 1, we demonstrated automatic activation of indirect meanings of particularized implicatures in controls but not in PD patients. Failure to automatically engage comprehension of indirect meanings of indirect speech acts in PD patients was correlated with a measure of prefrontal dysfunction. In experiment 2, we showed that while PD patients and controls offered similar interpretations of indirect speech acts, PD participants were overly confident in their interpretations and unaware of errors of interpretation. Efficient reputational adjustment mechanisms apparently require intact striatal-prefrontal networks.