Inferential abilities based on pictorial stimuli in patients with right hemisphere damage: Influence of schooling

Ribeiro, Ariella Fornachari; Radanovic, Marcia

doi:10.1590/S1980-57642014DN83000008

Abstracts

Inferences are mental representations, formed through the interaction between explicit linguistic information and an individual's world knowledge. It is well known that individuals with brain damage in the right hemisphere (RH) often fail on this task and that schooling may be a variable affecting this.

OBJECTIVE:

Objective: To compare the effect of schooling on an inference comprehension task based on pictorial stimuli in patients with RH lesion.

METHODS:

The inferential abilities of 75 controls and 50 patients with RH lesion were assessed through the pictorial stimuli from the instrument "300 exercises of comprehension of logical and pragmatic inferences and causal chains". Both groups were stratified into two subgroups according to schooling level: 4 to 8 years and 9 or more years.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:

Highly educated subjects performed better than low educated individuals, both on intergroup and intragroup comparisons (p<0.0001) for logical and pragmatic inference ability.

visual inferences; schooling; right hemisphere damage

Inferências são representações mentais, formadas através da interação entre a informação linguística explícita e o conhecimento de mundo de um indivíduo. Sabe-se que indivíduos com lesão cerebral em hemisfério direito (HD) frequentemente falham nesse tipo de tarefa e que, a escolaridade pode ser uma variável que afeta tal competência.

OBJETIVO:

Comparar o efeito da escolaridade em um teste de compreensão de inferência a partir de estímulos visuais, em pacientes com lesão de HD.

MÉTODOS:

As habilidades inferenciais de 75 controles e 50 pacientes com lesão de HD foram avaliadas a partir de estímulos pictóricos do intrumento "300 exercícios de compreensão de inferências lógicas e pragmáticas e cadeias causais". Ambos os grupos foram divididos em dois subgrupos de acordo com o nível de escolaridade: 4 a 8 anos e 9 anos ou mais.

RESULTADOS E CONCLUSÃO:

O grupo mais escolarizado apresentou melhor desempenho do que os menos escolarizados, seja nas comparações intragrupos e intergrupos (p<0.0001), tanto na compreensão de inferências lógicas quanto pragmáticas.

inferências visuais; escolaridade; lesão de hemisfério direito

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REFERENCES

¹
Silveira JRC. The image: interpretation and communication. [A imagem: Interpretação e comunicação] . Linguagem em (Dis)curso 2005;5:113-128.
²
Alonso AOL. Information and inference as combined cognitive processes. Interdisciplinaria 2004;(n.esp):23-34.
³
Cummings L. Pragmatics: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. Edinburgh: University Press; 2005.
⁴
Myers PS. Communication disorders associated with right hemisphere damaged. In: Chapey R. Language interventions strategies in adult aphasia, Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins; 2001.
⁵
Singer M, Remillard G. Retrieving text inferences: controlled and automatic influences. Mem Cognit 2004;32:1223-1237.
⁶
Sundermeier BA, Virtue SM, Marsolek CJ, Van den Broek P. Evidence for dissociable neural mechanisms underlying inference generation in familiar and less-familiar scenarios. Brain Lang 2005;95:402-413.
⁷
Virtue S, Haberman J, Clancy Z, Parrish T, Jung Beeman M. Neural activity of inferences during story comprehension. Brain Res 2006;1084:104-114.
⁸
Benowitz L, Moya K, Levine D. Impaired verbal reasoning and constructional apraxia in subjects with right hemisphere damage. Neuropsychologia 1990;28:231-241.
⁹
Kuperberg GR, Lakshaman BM, Caplan DN, Holcomb PJ. Making sense of discourse: an fMRI study of causal inference across sentences. Neuroimage 2006;33:343-361.
¹⁰
Johnson- Laird P. Mental models. Cambridge: University Press; 1983.
¹¹
Myers PS, Brookshire RH. Effect of visual and inferential variables on scene descriptions by right hemisphere damaged and non- brain damaged adults. J Speech Hear Res 1996;39:870-880.
¹²
Ribeiro AF, Mansur LL, Radanovic M. Impairment of inferential abilities based on pictorial stimuli in patients with right hemisphere damage. Appl Neuropsychol Adult (in press).
¹³
Radanovic M, Mansur LL, Scaff M. Normative data for the Brazilian population in the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination: influence of schooling. Braz J Med Biol Res 2004;37:1731-1738.
¹⁴
Mansur LL, Radanovic M, Araújo GC, Taquemori LY, Greco LL. Boston Naming Test: performance of Brazilian population from São Paulo. Pró Fono 2006;18:13-20.
¹⁵
Hamel C, Joanette Y. Logical and pragmatic inferencing abilities after left- and right-hemisphere lesions. Brain Lang 2007;103:248-249.
¹⁶
Ribeiro AF, Freitas MId, Radanovic M, Mansur LL. The generation of visual inferences in normal elderly: influence of schooling and visual complexity. Dement Neuropsychol 2010;4:194-220.
¹⁷
Oldfield RC. The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh Inventory. Neuropsychologia 1971;9:97-113.
¹⁸
Folstein MF, Folstein SE, McHugh PR. "Mini -Mental State": a practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J Psychiatric Res 1975; 12: 189-198.
¹⁹
Brucki SMD. Suggestions for utilization of the mini-mental state examination in Brazil. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2003;61:777-781.
²⁰
Brucki SMD, Rocha MSG. Category fluency test: effects of age, gender and education on total scores, clustering and witching in Brazilian Portuguese-speaking subjects. Braz J Med Biol Res 2004;37:1771-1777.
²¹
Sunderland T, Hill JL, Mellow AM, et al. Clock drawing in Alzheimer's disease. A novel measure of dementia severity. J Am Geriatr Soc 1989; 37:725-729.
²²
Weintraub S, Mesulam MM. Mental state assessment of young and elderly adults in behavioral neurology. In: Mesulam, M. M. (ed.), Principles of Behavioral Neurology. Philadelphia: FA Davis; 1985. p.71-123.
²³
Morris JC, Heyman A, Mohs, RC, et al. The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD): Part I. Clinical and neuropsychological assessment of Alzheirmer's disease. Neurology 1989; 39:1159-1165.
²⁴
Bertolucci PHC, Okamoto IO, Brucki SMD, Siviero MO, Neto JT, Ramos LR. Applicability of the CERAD neuropsychological battery to brazilian elderly. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2001;59:532-536.
²⁵
Hamilton M. A rating scale for depression. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1960; 23: 56-62.
²⁶
Boutard C, Brouard E. 300 exercices de compréhension of inferences logique et pragmatique et de chaînes causales. France: Ortho Edition; 2003.
²⁷
Charbonneau S, Scherzer BP, Aspirot D, Cohen H. Perception and production of facial and prosodic emotions by chronic CVA patients. Neuropsychologia 2003;41:605-613.
²⁸
Warren WH, Nicholas DW, Trabasso T. Event chains and inferences in understanding narratives. In: Dell'Isola, RLP. Leitura: inferências e contexto sociocultural. Belo Horizonte: Formato Editorial; 2001.
²⁹
Rosselli M, Ardila A. The impact of culture and education on non-verbal neuropsychological measurements: a critical review. Brain Cogn 2003; 52:326-33.
³⁰
Meguro K, Shimada M, Yamaguchi S, et al. Cognitive function and frontal lobe atrophy in normal elderly adults: Implications for dementia not as aging related disorders and the reserve hypotesis. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2001;55:565-72.
³¹
Castro-Caldas A, Miranda Cavaleiro P, Carmo I, et al. Influence of learning to read and write on the morphology of the corpus callosum. Eur J Neurol 1999;6:23-8.
³²
Castro-Caldas A, Reis A. Neurobiological substrates of illiteracy. Neuroscientist 2000;6:475-82.
³³
Parente MAMP, Scherer LC, Zimmermann N, Fonseca RP. Evidências do papel da escolaridade na organização cerebral. Rev Neuropsicol Latinoamericana 2009;1:72-80.

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
Sept 2014

History

Received
26 Apr 2014
Accepted
05 July 2014

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

[1] ¹
Silveira JRC. The image: interpretation and communication. [A imagem: Interpretação e comunicação] . Linguagem em (Dis)curso 2005;5:113-128.

[2] ²
Alonso AOL. Information and inference as combined cognitive processes. Interdisciplinaria 2004;(n.esp):23-34.

[3] ³
Cummings L. Pragmatics: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. Edinburgh: University Press; 2005.

[4] ⁴
Myers PS. Communication disorders associated with right hemisphere damaged. In: Chapey R. Language interventions strategies in adult aphasia, Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins; 2001.

[5] ⁵
Singer M, Remillard G. Retrieving text inferences: controlled and automatic influences. Mem Cognit 2004;32:1223-1237.

[6] ⁶
Sundermeier BA, Virtue SM, Marsolek CJ, Van den Broek P. Evidence for dissociable neural mechanisms underlying inference generation in familiar and less-familiar scenarios. Brain Lang 2005;95:402-413.

[7] ⁷
Virtue S, Haberman J, Clancy Z, Parrish T, Jung Beeman M. Neural activity of inferences during story comprehension. Brain Res 2006;1084:104-114.

[8] ⁸
Benowitz L, Moya K, Levine D. Impaired verbal reasoning and constructional apraxia in subjects with right hemisphere damage. Neuropsychologia 1990;28:231-241.

[9] ⁹
Kuperberg GR, Lakshaman BM, Caplan DN, Holcomb PJ. Making sense of discourse: an fMRI study of causal inference across sentences. Neuroimage 2006;33:343-361.

[10] ¹⁰
Johnson- Laird P. Mental models. Cambridge: University Press; 1983.

[11] ¹¹
Myers PS, Brookshire RH. Effect of visual and inferential variables on scene descriptions by right hemisphere damaged and non- brain damaged adults. J Speech Hear Res 1996;39:870-880.

[12] ¹²
Ribeiro AF, Mansur LL, Radanovic M. Impairment of inferential abilities based on pictorial stimuli in patients with right hemisphere damage. Appl Neuropsychol Adult (in press).

[13] ¹³
Radanovic M, Mansur LL, Scaff M. Normative data for the Brazilian population in the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination: influence of schooling. Braz J Med Biol Res 2004;37:1731-1738.

[14] ¹⁴
Mansur LL, Radanovic M, Araújo GC, Taquemori LY, Greco LL. Boston Naming Test: performance of Brazilian population from São Paulo. Pró Fono 2006;18:13-20.

[15] ¹⁵
Hamel C, Joanette Y. Logical and pragmatic inferencing abilities after left- and right-hemisphere lesions. Brain Lang 2007;103:248-249.

[16] ¹⁶
Ribeiro AF, Freitas MId, Radanovic M, Mansur LL. The generation of visual inferences in normal elderly: influence of schooling and visual complexity. Dement Neuropsychol 2010;4:194-220.

[17] ¹⁷
Oldfield RC. The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh Inventory. Neuropsychologia 1971;9:97-113.

[18] ¹⁸
Folstein MF, Folstein SE, McHugh PR. "Mini -Mental State": a practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J Psychiatric Res 1975; 12: 189-198.

[19] ¹⁹
Brucki SMD. Suggestions for utilization of the mini-mental state examination in Brazil. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2003;61:777-781.

[20] ²⁰
Brucki SMD, Rocha MSG. Category fluency test: effects of age, gender and education on total scores, clustering and witching in Brazilian Portuguese-speaking subjects. Braz J Med Biol Res 2004;37:1771-1777.

[21] ²¹
Sunderland T, Hill JL, Mellow AM, et al. Clock drawing in Alzheimer's disease. A novel measure of dementia severity. J Am Geriatr Soc 1989; 37:725-729.

[22] ²²
Weintraub S, Mesulam MM. Mental state assessment of young and elderly adults in behavioral neurology. In: Mesulam, M. M. (ed.), Principles of Behavioral Neurology. Philadelphia: FA Davis; 1985. p.71-123.

[23] ²³
Morris JC, Heyman A, Mohs, RC, et al. The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD): Part I. Clinical and neuropsychological assessment of Alzheirmer's disease. Neurology 1989; 39:1159-1165.

[24] ²⁴
Bertolucci PHC, Okamoto IO, Brucki SMD, Siviero MO, Neto JT, Ramos LR. Applicability of the CERAD neuropsychological battery to brazilian elderly. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2001;59:532-536.

[25] ²⁵
Hamilton M. A rating scale for depression. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1960; 23: 56-62.

[26] ²⁶
Boutard C, Brouard E. 300 exercices de compréhension of inferences logique et pragmatique et de chaînes causales. France: Ortho Edition; 2003.

[27] ²⁷
Charbonneau S, Scherzer BP, Aspirot D, Cohen H. Perception and production of facial and prosodic emotions by chronic CVA patients. Neuropsychologia 2003;41:605-613.

[28] ²⁸
Warren WH, Nicholas DW, Trabasso T. Event chains and inferences in understanding narratives. In: Dell'Isola, RLP. Leitura: inferências e contexto sociocultural. Belo Horizonte: Formato Editorial; 2001.

[29] ²⁹
Rosselli M, Ardila A. The impact of culture and education on non-verbal neuropsychological measurements: a critical review. Brain Cogn 2003; 52:326-33.

[30] ³⁰
Meguro K, Shimada M, Yamaguchi S, et al. Cognitive function and frontal lobe atrophy in normal elderly adults: Implications for dementia not as aging related disorders and the reserve hypotesis. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2001;55:565-72.

[31] ³¹
Castro-Caldas A, Miranda Cavaleiro P, Carmo I, et al. Influence of learning to read and write on the morphology of the corpus callosum. Eur J Neurol 1999;6:23-8.

[32] ³²
Castro-Caldas A, Reis A. Neurobiological substrates of illiteracy. Neuroscientist 2000;6:475-82.

[33] ³³
Parente MAMP, Scherer LC, Zimmermann N, Fonseca RP. Evidências do papel da escolaridade na organização cerebral. Rev Neuropsicol Latinoamericana 2009;1:72-80.

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