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Verbal and Nonverbal Right Hemisphere Processing by Chronic Alcoholics
Author(s) -
Cermak Laird S.,
Verfaellie Mieke,
Letourneau Lynn,
Blackford Susan,
Weiss Susan,
Numan Bobbi
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1989.tb00391.x
Subject(s) - nonverbal communication , right hemisphere , psychology , chronic alcoholic , lateralization of brain function , audiology , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , medicine
The theory that chronic alcoholism produces a right hemisphere deficit has generally been tested using visuospatial tasks. The present report tested the theory using three tasks that tap functions, ether than visuospatial abilities, which have been failed by patients with right hemisphere damage. The first task assesses the ability to draw a correct inference by integrating information from two unrelated sentences. The second taps the patient's capacity to appreciate humor. The third requires the patient to interpret the emotion displayed in a face. On all three tasks, the pattern of responses of Chronic alcoholics differed from that of patients with right hemisphere damage. Thus, the right hemisphere deficit theory fails to gain support from this investigation. On the other hand, the chronic alcoholics' performance was impaired relative to contemporary controls on the first two tasks, although not on the last On the first two tasks, alcoholics' impairment approximated, and in one instance exceeded, that seen in normal elderly controls. Thus, a premature aging hypothesis received modest support from this study.