CATEGORY SPECIFIC SEMANTIC IMPAIRMENTS

Category specific semantic impairments.

We report a quantitative investigation of the visual identification and auditory comprehension deficits of 4 patients who had made a partial recovery from herpes simplex encephalitis. Clinical observations had suggested the selective impairment and selective preservation of certain categories of visual stimuli. In all 4 patients a significant discrepancy between their ability to identify inanim...

Semantic Classification in Category-Specific Semantic Impairments Reflected in the Typology of Bantu Noun Class Systems

Just as the search for an explanation to category specific semantic impairments is based on the belief that the functioning and biological structure of the brain is universal it has been thought that the understanding of the grouping of nouns in noun class systems hints at a universal cognitive basis, which underlies such linguistic classifications. What constitutes possible typological variati...

Factors underlying category-specific semantic deficits

Weighing up the facts of category-specific semantic deficits.

about the brain as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is about the weather, as Malevich reveals about the spiritual depths of the Russian soul, or as Darwin contains scripts for docu-soaps. In the end, what strikes us is that, in this book, Shakespeare’s message is read for its factual meaning, that the metaphors are decoded as containing early sketches of knowledge awaiting long overdue confirmation from ...

A progressive category-specific semantic deficit for non-living things.

We report a longitudinal study of a patient, ES, with a progressive degenerative disorder resulting from generalised cerebral atrophy. Across a range of tasks, ES showed a greater difficulty in recognising and naming artifacts than living things. This deficit for artifacts emerged over time, as she became more severely impaired. In one task, picture naming, there was a crossover from an initial...