We investigated the associations between Boston naming and the animal fluency tests and cortical atrophy in 19 probable AD and 5 multiple domain amnestic mild cognitive impairment patients who later converted to AD. We applied a surface-based computational anatomy technique to MRI scans of the brain and then used linear regression models to detect…

This volume brings together leading authorities from multiple disciplines to examine the relationship between brain development and behavior in typically developing children. Presented are innovative cross-sectional and longitudinal studies that shed light on brain-behavior connections in infancy and toddlerhood through adolescence. Chapters…

We investigated how lateralized lexical decision is affected by the presence of distractors in the visual hemifield contralateral to the target. The study had three goals: first, to determine how the presence of a distractor (either a word or a pseudoword) affects visual field differences in the processing of the target; second, to identify the…

Differential activation levels of the two hemispheres due to hemispheric specialization for various linguistic processes might determine hand choice for co-speech gestures. To test this hypothesis, we compared hand choices for gesturing in 20 healthy right-handed participants during explanation of metaphorical vs. non-metaphorical meanings, on the…

Co-speech gestures embody a form of manual action that is tightly coupled to the language system. As such, the co-occurrence of speech and co-speech gestures is an excellent example of the interplay between language and action. There are, however, other ways in which language and action can be thought of as closely related. In this paper we will…

K. Wiegand and E. Wascher (2005) used the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) to investigate the mechanisms underlying spatial stimulus-response (S-R) correspondence. The authors compared spatial S-R correspondence effects obtained with horizontal and vertical S-R arrangements. In some relevant previous investigations on spatial S-R…

Previous research has suggested that perceptual information about objects is activated during sentence comprehension [Zwaan, R. A., Stanfield, R. A., & Yaxley, R. H. (2002). Language comprehenders mentally represent the shapes of objects. "Psychological Science, 13"(2), 168-171]. The goal in the current study was to examine the role of the two…

Purpose: To describe the current treatment research for communication (prosodic, discourse, and pragmatic) deficits associated with right hemisphere brain damage and to provide suggestions for treatment selection given the paucity of evidence specifically for this population. Method: The discussion covers (a) clinical decision processes and…

This research tested the response inhibition account of the hand-advantage found in the finger precuing task. According to this account, the advantage of preparing two fingers on one hand (represented in one hemisphere) as opposed to preparing two fingers on two hands (represented in two hemispheres) is due, in part, to a response inhibition…

Many memory models focus on encoding of sequences by excitatory recurrent synapses in region CA3 of the hippocampus. However, data and modeling suggest an alternate mechanism for encoding of sequences in which interference between theta frequency oscillations encodes the position within a sequence based on spatial arc length or time. Arc length…

We hypothesized that the right hemisphere would be superior to the left hemisphere in remembering having seen a specific picture before, given its superiority in perceptually encoding specific aspects of visual form. A large set of pictures (N=1500) of animals, human faces, artifacts, landscapes, and art paintings were shown for 2 s in central…

The neural networks associated with processing related pairs of words forming literal, novel, and conventional metaphorical expressions and unrelated pairs of words were studied in a group of 15 normal adults using fMRI. Subjects read the four types of linguistic expressions and decided which relation exists between the two words (metaphoric,…

Revisits the hemisphericity theory of the 1970s and the revised and less familiar accounts that emerged in the 1980s. Argues that neither the older nor the newer psychobiological accounts of mind support the Neoclassical/Romantic claims. Contends that these accounts are more congenial to an Aristotelian theory of mind and rhetoric. (RS)

Neglect patients typically show motor perseveration while canceling targets on the ipsilesional side. This behavior can be influenced by the presence vs. absence of targets on the (neglected) contralesional side (Bottini & Toraldo, 2003). As alternative explanations, the authors proposed (i) directional hypokinesia-the patient cannot perform…

Recognition memory and hemispheric specialization were assessed for abstract colour/black and white pictures of sport situations in painters and visually naive subjects using a forced choice yes/no tachistoscopic procedure. Reaction times showed a significant three-way interaction of picture type, expertise, and visual field, indicating that…