Tilbe Göksun (a) and Anjan Chatterjee (b)
(a) Dept. of Psychology, Koç University, Turkey
(b) Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, USA
(cc) Charline Tetiyevsky.
People often use spontaneous gestures when talking about space, such as when giving directions. In a recent study from our lab, we examined whether focal brain-injured individuals’ naming motion event components of manner and path (represented in English by verbs and prepositions, respectively) are impaired selectively, and whether gestures compensate for impairment in speech. Left or right hemisphere damaged patients and elderly control participants were asked to describe motion events (e.g., walking around) depicted in brief videos. Results suggest that producing verbs and prepositions can be separately impaired in the left hemisphere and gesture production compensates for naming impairments when damage involves specific areas in the left temporal cortex.
