Diaz Michele T, Eppes Anna
Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2018 Mar 28;9:414. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00414. eCollection 2018.
Although the left hemisphere is critical for language, clinical, behavioral, and neuroimaging research suggest that the right hemisphere also contributes to language comprehension. In particular, research has suggested that figurative language may be one type of language that preferentially engages right hemisphere regions. However, there is disagreement about whether these regions within the right hemisphere are sensitive to figurative language or to other factors that co-vary with figurativeness. In this article, we will review the neuroimaging literature on figurative language processing, focusing on metaphors, within the context of several theoretical perspectives that have been proposed about hemispheric function in language. Then we will examine three factors that may influence right hemisphere engagement: novelty, task difficulty, and context. We propose that factors that increase integration demands drive right hemisphere involvement in language processing, and that such recruitment is not limited to figurative language.
尽管左半球对语言至关重要，但临床、行为和神经影像学研究表明，右半球也有助于语言理解。特别是，研究表明比喻性语言可能是一种优先激活右半球区域的语言类型。然而，对于右半球内的这些区域是对比喻性语言敏感还是对与比喻性共同变化的其他因素敏感，存在分歧。在本文中，我们将在关于语言半球功能的几种理论观点的背景下，回顾关于比喻性语言处理的神经影像学文献，重点是隐喻。然后我们将研究可能影响右半球参与的三个因素：新颖性、任务难度和语境。我们提出，增加整合需求的因素会促使右半球参与语言处理，而且这种招募不限于比喻性语言。
