Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-fqc5m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T14:20:22.569Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Beyond Laterality: A Critical Assessment of Research on the Neural Basis of Metaphor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2009

GWENDA L. SCHMIDT
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
ALEXANDER KRANJEC
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
EILEEN R. CARDILLO
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
ANJAN CHATTERJEE*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
*
*Correspondence and reprint requests to: Anjan Chatterjee, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Neurology, 3400 Spruce Street, 3W Gates/Chatterjee, Philadelphia, PA 19104. E-mail: anjan@mail.med.upenn.edu

Abstract

Metaphors are a fundamental aspect of human cognition. The major neuropsychological hypothesis that metaphoric processing relies primarily on the right hemisphere is not confirmed consistently. We propose ways to advance our understanding of the neuropsychology of metaphor that go beyond simple laterality. Neuropsychological studies need to more carefully control confounding lexical and sentential factors, and consider the role of different parts of speech as they are extended metaphorically. They need to incorporate recent theoretical frameworks such as the career of metaphor theory, and address factors such as novelty. We also advocate the use of new methods such as voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping, which permits precise and formal tests of hypotheses correlating behavior with lesions sites. Finally, we outline a plausible model for the neural basis of metaphor. (JINS, 2010, 16, 1–5.)

Type
Short Review
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anaki, D., Faust, M., & Kravetz, S. (1998). Cerebral hemispheric asymmetries in processing lexical metaphors. Neuropsychologia, 36, 353362.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arzouan, Y., Goldstein, A., & Faust, M. (2007). Dynamics of hemispheric activity during metaphor comprehension: Electrophysiological measures. Neuroimage, 36, 222231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aziz-Zadeh, L., & Damasio, A. (2008). Embodied semantics for actions: Findings from functional brain imaging. Journal of Physiology, Paris, 102, 3539.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bottini, G., Corcoran, R., Sterzi, R., Paulesu, E., Schenone, P., Scarpa, P., et al. . (1994). The role of the right hemisphere in the interpretation of figurative aspects of language: A positron emission tomography activation study. Brain, 117, 12411253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowdle, B.F., & Gentner, D. (2005). The career of metaphor. Psychological Review, 112, 193216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brownell, H.H., Simpson, T.L., Bihrle, A.M., Potter, H.H., & Gardner, H. (1990). Appreciation of metaphoric alternative word meanings by left and right brain-damaged patients. Neuropsychologia, 28, 375383.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chatterjee, A. (2008). The neural organization of spatial thought and language. Seminars in Speech and Language, 29, 226238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, E., Widick, P., & Chatterjee, A. (2008). Functional-anatomical organization of predicate metaphor processing. Brain & Language, 107, 194202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coulson, S., & Van Petten, C. (2007). A special role for the right hemisphere in metaphor comprehension? ERP evidence from hemifield presentation. Brain Research, 1146, 128145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Damasio, A.R., & Tranel, D. (1993). Nouns and verbs are retrieved with differently distributed neural systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 90, 49574960.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eisenson, J. (1962). Language and intellectual modifications associated with right cerebral damage. Language and Speech, 5, 4953.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eviatar, Z., & Just, M.A. (2006). Brain correlates of discourse processing: An fMRI investigation of irony and conventional metaphor comprehension. Neuropsychologia, 44, 23482359.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gentner, D. (2003). Why we’re so smart. In Gentner, D. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (Eds.), Language in mind: Advances in the study of language and thought (pp. 195235). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, R.W. (2006). Metaphor interpretation as embodied simulation. Mind & Language, 21, 434458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giora, R., Zaidel, E., Soroker, N., Batori, G., & Kasher, A. (2000). Differential effects of right- and left-hemisphere damage on understanding sarcasm and metaphor. Metaphor and Symbol, 15, 6383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glucksberg, S. (2001). Understanding figurative language: From metaphors to idioms. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, Z.R., & Brysbaert, M. (2008). Visual half-field experiments are a good measure of cerebral language dominance if used properly: Evidence from fMRI. Neuropsychologia, 46, 316325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jung-Beeman, M. (2005). Bilateral brain processes for comprehending natural language. Trends in Cognitive Science, 11, 512518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kircher, T.T., Leube, D.T., Erb, M., Grodd, W., & Rapp, A.M. (2007). Neural correlates of metaphor processing in schizophrenia. Neuroimage, 34, 281289.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kable, J., Lease-Spellmeyer, J., & Chatterjee, A. (2002). Neural substrates of action event knowledge. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14, 795805.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kacinik, N.A., & Chiarello, C. (2007). Understanding metaphors: Is the right hemisphere uniquely involved? Brain & Language, 100, 188207.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lee, S.S., & Dapretto, M. (2006). Metaphorical vs. literal word meanings: fMRI evidence against a selective role of the right hemisphere. Neuroimage, 29, 536544.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mackenzie, C., Begg, T., Lees, K.R., & Brady, M. (1999). The communication effects of right brain damage on the very old and the not so old. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 12, 7993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mashal, N., & Faust, M. (2009). Conventionalisation of novel metaphors: A shift in hemispheric asymmetry. Laterality, 27, 117.Google Scholar
Mashal, N., Faust, M., & Hendler, T. (2005). Processing conventional vs. novel metaphors by the two cerebral hemispheres: Application of principle component analysis to fMRI data. Neuropsychologia, 43, 20842100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mashal, N., Faust, M., Hendler, T., & Jung-Beeman, M. (2009). An fMRI study of processing novel metaphoric sentences. Laterality, 14, 3054.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Noppeney, U., & Wallesch, C.W. (2000). Language and cognition–Kurt Goldstein’s theory of semantics. Brain and Cognition, 44, 367386.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Norbury, C.F. (2005). The relationship between theory of mind and metaphor: Evidence from children with language impairment and autistic spectrum disorder. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23, 383399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortony, A. (1993). Metaphor, language and thought. In Ortony, A. (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (2nd ed., pp. 119). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pobric, G., Mashal, N., Faust, M., & Lavidor, M. (2008). The role of the right cerebral hemisphere in processing novel metaphoric expressions: A transcranial magnetic stimulation study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20, 170181.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raposo, A., Moss, H.E., Stamatakis, E.A., & Tyler, L.K. (2009). Modulation of motor and premotor cortices by actions, action words and action sentences. Neuropsychologia, 47, 388396.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rapp, A.M., Leube, D.T., Erb, M., Grodd, W., & Kircher, T.T. (2004). Neural correlates of metaphor processing. Cognitive Brain Research, 20, 395402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schmidt, G.L., DeBuse, C.J., & Seger, C.A. (2007). Right hemisphere metaphor processing? Characterizing the lateralization of semantic processes. Brain & Language, 100, 127141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simmons, W., & Barsalou, L.W. (2003). The similarity-in-topography principle: Reconciling theories of conceptual deficits. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 20, 451486.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stringaris, A., Medford, N., Giora, R., Giampietro, C.V., Brammer, J.M., & David, S.A. (2006). How metaphors influence semantic relatedness judgments: The role of the right frontal cortex. Neuroimage, 33, 784793.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tompkins, C.A. (1990). Knowledge and strategies for processing lexical metaphor after right or left hemisphere brain damage. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 33, 307316.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winner, E., & Gardner, H. (1977). The comprehension of metaphor in brain-damaged patients. Brain, 100, 717729.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wu, D., Waller, S., & Chatterjee, A. (2007). The functional neuroanatomy of thematic role and locative relational knowledge. The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 15421555.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Voyer, D. (1998). On the reliability and validity of noninvasive laterality measures. Brain and Cognition, 36, 209236.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zaidel, E., Kasher, A., Soroker, N., & Batori, G. (2002). Effects of right and left hemisphere damage on performance of the “Right Hemisphere Communication Battery.” Brain & Language, 80, 510535.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed