Figures of speech and context awareness following right hemisphere infarcts

The ability to interpret figures of speech was tested in nineteen patients with right hemisphere damage (RDH) and in seventeen controls. All subjects were presented fifteen expressions with metaphoric meanings and asked to select one of three pictures; one illustrating the literal meaning of the expression, one the metaphoric meaning and one a noun in the expression. RHD patients were expected to have problems in interpreting the metaphoric expressions but the hypothesis that the RHD group would select the literal picture more often than the controls was rejected. The groups differed, however, in the distribution of non-metaphoric answers, and in the way the tasks were solved. The performance by the RHD patients may reflect deficient awareness of the context.