Abstract
Although proverb tests are commonly used in the mental status examination surprisingly little is known about either normal comprehension or the interpretation of proverbial expressions. Current proverbs tests have conceptual and linguistic shortcomings, and few studies have been done to investigate the specific effects of neurological and psychiatric disorders on the interpretation of proverbs. Although frontal lobes have traditionally been impugned in patients who are “concrete”, recent studies targeting deficient comprehension of non literal language (e.g. proverbs, idioms, speech formulas, and indirect requests) point to an important role of the right hemisphere (RH). Research describing responses of psychiatrically and neurologically classified groups to tests of proverb and idiom usage is needed to clarify details of aberrant processing of nonliteral meanings. Meanwhile, the proverb test, drawing on diverse cognitive skills, is a nonspecific but sensitive probe of mental status.
Highlights
Abilities to recognize and interpret certain kinds of nonliteral language, especially proverbs and idioms, have long been believed to reflect special aspects of cognitive function (Buhler, 1907; Bronner et at., 1927; Piaget, 1923; Benjamin, 1944), and have been used as a tool in evaluation of cognitive and mental status (Lezak, 1983; Fogel, 1965, Cummings and Benson, 1983)
Viewed as a problem with "abstract thinking" (Goldstein, 1936; Goldstein and Scherer, 1941), or "verbal abstraction" (Gorham, 1961), a "concrete" interpretation of "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" or "a loud tie" is taken as an indication of deficient cognition and/or neurological disease, while a bizzare interpretation may be said to reflect thought disorder (Cummings, 1985)
Tests of proverb interpretation usually rely upon elicited verbal responses, involving an explanation by the subject of the meaning of the i~em
Summary
Abilities to recognize and interpret certain kinds of nonliteral language, especially proverbs and idioms, have long been believed to reflect special aspects of cognitive function (Buhler, 1907; Bronner et at., 1927; Piaget, 1923; Benjamin, 1944), and have been used as a tool in evaluation of cognitive and mental status (Lezak, 1983; Fogel, 1965, Cummings and Benson, 1983). Better knowledge of normal nonliteral language use and the neuropathology of nonliterallanguage deficits would make the proverbs test more useful in clinical assessment, and would further our understanding of brain function underlying communicative and cognitive ability.
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