Corina D P, Poizner H, Bellugi U, Feinberg T, Dowd D, O'Grady-Batch L
Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Los Angeles, CA.
Brain Lang. 1992 Oct;43(3):414-47. doi: 10.1016/0093-934x(92)90110-z.
This paper addresses the issue of the separability of disorders of sign language from disorders of gesture and pantomime. The study of a left-lesioned deaf signer presents one of the most striking examples to date of the cleavage between linguistic signs and manual pantomime. The left-hemisphere lesion produced a marked sign language aphasia disrupting both the production and the comprehension of sign language. However, in sharp contrast to the breakdown of sign language, the ability to communicate in nonlinguistic gesture was remarkably spared. This case has important implications for our understanding of the neural mediation of language and gesture. We argue that the differences observed in the fractionation of linguistic versus nonlinguistic gesture reflect differing degrees of compositionality of systems underlying language and gesture. The compositionality hypothesis receives support for the existence of phonemic paraphasias in sign language production, illustrating structural dissolution which is absent in the production of pantomimic gesture. Understanding the neural encoding of compositional motoric systems may lead to a principled anatomical account of the neural separability of language and gesture. This case provides a powerful indication of the left hemisphere's specialization for language-specific functions.
本文探讨了手语障碍与手势及哑剧动作障碍的可分离性问题。对一名左侧脑部受损的聋人手语使用者的研究，是迄今为止语言符号与手部哑剧动作分离的最显著例子之一。左半球损伤导致了明显的手语失语症，破坏了手语的产生和理解。然而，与手语的崩溃形成鲜明对比的是，非语言手势的交流能力却显著保留。这个案例对我们理解语言和手势的神经调节具有重要意义。我们认为，在语言性手势与非语言性手势的分离中观察到的差异，反映了语言和手势背后系统的不同组合程度。组合性假说得到了手语产生中语音性错语存在的支持，这说明了在哑剧手势产生中不存在的结构解体。理解组合性运动系统的神经编码可能会对手语和手势的神经可分离性给出一个有原则的解剖学解释。这个案例有力地表明了左半球对语言特定功能的专门化。
