16 - Strategies of Linguistic Processing in Human Split-Brain Patients

Abstract

This chapter discusses the strategies of linguistic processing that are involved in human split-brain patients. It presents the definition and theory related to lateralization and language. The chapter discusses the language limitations of the right hemisphere, the cognitive dispositions of the right hemisphere, and a missing process in the right hemisphere. The right hemisphere is almost totally lacking in phonetic analyzers and while it can decode sound to meaning, it cannot generate the phonetic image of a concept it possesses. The three basic deficiencies seen in the language systems of apes and in the human right hemisphere can be explained as, first, a cognitive deficit and cognitive orientation that limit the level of abstraction of concepts which can be acquired; second, a syntactical deficit that limits the complexity of grammatical structures, which can be decoded and expressed, particularly when the words of the language have no persistent spatial referents; and third, an almost total incapacity for phonetic analysis. If a language is defined not by the mechanisms whereby it is comprehended or generated, but rather by its performance characteristics, then the human right hemisphere, apes, and perhaps other mammals could be legitimately said to have language.