Bihrle A M, Brownell H H, Powelson J A, Gardner H
Brain Cogn. 1986 Oct;5(4):399-411. doi: 10.1016/0278-2626(86)90042-4.
Right hemisphere-damaged (RHD) and left hemisphere-damaged (LHD) aphasic patients were tested on a nonverbal cartoon completion task that included a humorous (Joke) and a nonhumorous (Story) condition. In both conditions, RHD patients performed worse than LHD patients. More importantly, the qualitative difference between the errors produced by the two groups suggests that right and left hemisphere brain damage impairs different components of narrative ability. RHD patients showed a preserved sensitivity to the surprise element of humor, and a diminished ability to establish coherence. Conversely, LHD patients, when they erred, showed an impaired sensitivity to the surprise element of humor, and a preserved ability to establish coherence by integrating content across parts of a narrative. These results suggest that the observed humor comprehension deficits of RHD patients result specifically from right hemisphere disease and not from brain damage irrespective of locus. The performances of the RHD and LHD patients groups together support a separation of narrative ability from the traditional aspects of language ability typically disrupted in aphasia.
对右半球损伤（RHD）和左半球损伤（LHD）的失语症患者进行了一项非语言卡通完成任务测试，该任务包括一个幽默（笑话）和一个非幽默（故事）情境。在两种情境下，RHD患者的表现都比LHD患者差。更重要的是，两组产生的错误之间的质的差异表明，右半球和左半球脑损伤损害了叙事能力的不同组成部分。RHD患者对幽默的意外元素仍保持敏感，但建立连贯性的能力有所下降。相反，LHD患者犯错时，对幽默的意外元素的敏感性受损，但通过整合叙事各部分的内容来建立连贯性的能力仍保持。这些结果表明，观察到的RHD患者的幽默理解缺陷具体是由右半球疾病导致的，而非无论损伤部位的脑损伤。RHD和LHD患者组的表现共同支持了叙事能力与失语症中通常受损的传统语言能力方面的分离。
