Semantic, perceptual and number space: relations between category width and spatial processing.

Full Abstract

Coarse semantic encoding and broad categorization behavior are the hallmarks of the right cerebral hemisphere's contribution to language processing. We correlated 40 healthy subjects' breadth of categorization as assessed with Pettigrew's category width scale with lateral asymmetries in perceptual and representational space. Specifically, we hypothesized broader category width to be associated with larger leftward spatial biases. For the 20 men, but not the 20 women, this hypothesis was confirmed both in a lateralized tachistoscopic task with chimeric faces and a random digit generation task; the higher a male participant's score on category width, the more pronounced were his left-visual field bias in the judgement of chimeric faces and his small-number preference in digit generation ("small" is to the left of "large" in number space). Subjects' category width was unrelated to lateral displacements in a blindfolded tactile-motor rod centering task. These findings indicate that visual-spatial functions of the right hemisphere should not be considered independent of the same hemisphere's contribution to language. Linguistic and spatial cognition may be more tightly interwoven than is currently assumed.

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Author information

Author/s: Brugger, Peter (P); Loetscher, Tobias (T); Graves, Roger E (RE); Knoch, Daria (D);

Affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. peter.brugger(-atsign-)usz.ch

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Neuroscience letters (Neurosci Lett), published in Ireland. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-May; vol 418 (issue 2) : pp 133-7

Dates: Created 2007/04/30; Completed 2007/07/25;

PMID: 17400383, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Attention - physiology
Cerebral Cortex - anatomy & histology; physiology
Cognition - physiology
Female
Functional Laterality - physiology
Humans
Language
Language Tests
Male

Mathematics
Neuropsychological Tests
Orientation - physiology
Photic Stimulation
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Semantics
Sex Characteristics
Space Perception - physiology
Verbal Behavior - physiology
Visual Fields - physiology

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