Varley R, Siegal M
Department of Human Communication Sciences, University of Sheffield, UK.
Curr Biol. 2000 Jun 15;10(12):723-6. doi: 10.1016/s0960-9822(00)00538-8.
Understanding the inter-relationship between language and thought is fundamental to the study of human cognition [1] [2] [3]. Some investigators have proposed that propositions in natural language serve to scaffold thinking, by providing, for example, a sequential structure to a massively parallel process [4]. Others have maintained that certain thoughts, such as inferring the mental states of others, termed 'theory of mind' (ToM) reasoning, and identifying causal relationships, necessarily involve language propositions [5]. It has been proposed that ToM reasoning depends upon the possession of syntactic structures such as those that permit the embedding of false propositions within true statements ('Mary knows that John (falsely) thinks chocolates are in the cupboard') [6]. The performance on reasoning tasks of individuals with severe agrammatic aphasia (an impairment of language following a lesion of the perisylvian areas of the language-dominant hemisphere) offers novel insights into the relation between grammar and cognition. We report the unusual case of a patient with agrammatic aphasia of such severity that language propositions were not apparently available at an explicit processing level in any modality of language use. Despite this profound impairment in grammar, he displayed simple causal reasoning and ToM understanding. Thus, reasoning about causes and beliefs involve processes that are independent of propositional language.
理解语言与思维之间的相互关系是人类认知研究的基础[1][2][3]。一些研究者提出，自然语言中的命题通过例如为大规模并行过程提供顺序结构来辅助思维[4]。另一些人则坚持认为，某些思维，如推断他人的心理状态（称为“心理理论”（ToM）推理）和识别因果关系，必然涉及语言命题[5]。有人提出，ToM推理依赖于拥有诸如允许在真陈述中嵌入假命题的句法结构（“玛丽知道约翰（错误地）认为巧克力在橱柜里”）[6]。重度语法缺失性失语症患者（语言优势半球颞周区域受损后的语言障碍）在推理任务中的表现为语法与认知之间的关系提供了新的见解。我们报告了一个非同寻常的病例，患者患有严重的语法缺失性失语症，以至于在任何语言使用模式的明确加工水平上，语言命题显然都不可用。尽管语法存在这种严重缺陷，但他表现出了简单的因果推理和ToM理解。因此，关于原因和信念的推理涉及独立于命题语言的过程。
