Preserved visual lexicosemantics in global aphasia: a right-hemisphere contribution?

Extensive testing of a patient, GP, who encountered large-scale destruction of left-hemisphere (LH) language regions was undertaken in order to address several issues concerning the ability of nonperisylvian areas to extract meaning from printed words. Testing revealed recognition of superordinate boundaries of animals, tools, vegetables, fruit, clothes, and furniture. GP was able to distinguish proper names from other nouns and from nonwords. GP was also able to differentiate words representing living things from those denoting nonliving things. The extent of LH infarct resulting in a global impairment to phonological and syntactic processing suggests LH specificity for these functions but considerable right-hemisphere (RH) participation in visual lexicosemantic processing. The relative preservation of visual lexicosemantic abilities despite severe impairment to all aspects of phonological coding demonstrates the importance of the direct route to the meaning of single printed words.