Gainotti Guido, Bonnì Sonia, Maiella Michele, Carretta Jessica, Zigiotto Luca, Sarubbo Silvio, Papagno Costanza
Institute of Neurology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Gemelli University Hospital, Rome, Italy.
Non Invasive Brain Stimulation Unit, Department of Behavioral and Clinical Neurology, Santa Lucia Foundation IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
Cogn Behav Neurol. 2020 Mar;33(1):52-62. doi: 10.1097/WNN.0000000000000220.
Disagreement exists regarding representational and connectionist interpretations of semantic knowledge subserved by the right versus left anterior temporal lobes (ATLs). These interpretations predict a different pattern of impairment in patients with a right unilateral ATL lesion. We conducted a neuropsychological study of a selective semantic pictorial defect exhibited by a 57-year-old man who had undergone a right temporal lobectomy due to the presence of a glioblastoma. The patient was given the Thematic and Taxonomic Semantic task, in which individuals must select, within triplets of words or pictures, the best associates of living or nonliving stimuli, related by thematic or taxonomic links, and presented in the verbal or pictorial modality. The selectivity of the defect was documented by a comparison between the results obtained by our patient and those obtained by healthy controls on living items and on pictures with a thematic relation. The selectivity of the defect was confirmed by a within-subject analysis of the results obtained on all of the task's triplets and those obtained on the stimuli representing living entities with a taxonomic relation. The selectivity of this semantic pictorial defect mainly concerning living entities is consistent with the representational account of semantic defects observed in our patient. In the present case report, a right temporal lobectomy resulted in a selective semantic pictorial defect with the qualitative features predicted by the representational account of semantic defects observed after a unilateral ATL lesion.
对于由右侧与左侧前颞叶（ATL）所支持的语义知识的表征性和联结主义解释存在分歧。这些解释预测了右侧单侧ATL病变患者的不同损伤模式。我们对一名57岁男性进行了一项神经心理学研究，该男性因胶质母细胞瘤接受了右侧颞叶切除术，表现出选择性语义图片缺陷。患者接受了主题和分类语义任务，在该任务中，个体必须在单词或图片三元组中选择与有主题或分类联系的生物或非生物刺激的最佳关联项，并以言语或图片形式呈现。通过比较我们的患者与健康对照在生物项目以及具有主题关系的图片上获得的结果，记录了缺陷的选择性。通过对任务所有三元组上获得的结果以及对具有分类关系的代表生物实体的刺激上获得的结果进行受试者内分析，证实了缺陷的选择性。这种主要涉及生物实体的语义图片缺陷的选择性与我们在患者中观察到的语义缺陷的表征性解释一致。在本病例报告中，右侧颞叶切除术导致了选择性语义图片缺陷，其定性特征与单侧ATL病变后观察到的语义缺陷的表征性解释所预测的一致。
