Kita Sotaro, de Condappa Olivier, Mohr Christine
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
Brain Lang. 2007 Jun;101(3):185-97. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2006.11.006. Epub 2006 Dec 12.
Differential activation levels of the two hemispheres due to hemispheric specialization for various linguistic processes might determine hand choice for co-speech gestures. To test this hypothesis, we compared hand choices for gesturing in 20 healthy right-handed participants during explanation of metaphorical vs. non-metaphorical meanings, on the assumption that metaphor explanation enhances the right hemisphere contribution to speech production. Hand choices were analyzed separately for: depictive gestures that imitate action ("character viewpoint gestures," [McNeill, D. (1992). Hand and mind. What gestures reveal about thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.]), depictive gestures that express motion, relative locations, and shape ("observer viewpoint gestures"), and "abstract deictic gestures." It was found that the right-hand over left-hand preference was significantly weaker in the metaphor condition than in the non-metaphor conditions for depictive gestures that imitated action. Findings suggest that the activation of the right hemisphere in the metaphor condition reduces the likelihood of left hemisphere generation of gestures that imitate action, thus attenuating the right-hand preference.
由于大脑半球在各种语言过程中存在专门化，两个半球的激活水平差异可能决定了伴随言语的手势的用手偏好。为了验证这一假设，我们比较了20名健康右利手参与者在解释隐喻意义和非隐喻意义时的手势用手偏好，前提是隐喻解释会增强右半球对言语产生的贡献。我们分别对手势用手偏好进行了分析：模仿动作的描绘性手势（“角色视角手势”，[麦克尼尔，D.（1992年）。手与心。手势揭示的思维。芝加哥：芝加哥大学出版社。]）、表达动作、相对位置和形状的描绘性手势（“观察者视角手势”）以及“抽象指示手势”。结果发现，在模仿动作的描绘性手势方面，隐喻条件下右手比左手的偏好显著弱于非隐喻条件。研究结果表明，隐喻条件下右半球的激活降低了左半球产生模仿动作手势的可能性，从而减弱了右手偏好。
