Semantic attribute knowledge in adults with right and left hemisphere damage

Abstract

Abstract This study investigated the nature of semantic attribute knowledge in subjects with left and right hemisphere brain damage and subjects with no brain damage. The relationship between attribute knowledge and both auditory comprehension level and naming skills was also studied. Subjects completed a sorting task involving high, mid, and low frequency of occurrence nouns and high (HI) and low importance (LI) attributes. Subjects also named pictures of the stimulus nouns. While the identification of HI attributes remained intact, left and right hemisphere-damaged subjects exhibited equivalent reductions in identification of LI attributes across frequency levels. In contrast, the left hemisphere-damaged subjects were significantly more impaired on comprehension and naming measures than were the right hemisphere-damaged subjects. Comprehension and naming performance demonstrated a systematic relationship with attribute knowledge in the left hemisphere-damaged subjects only.