Magnetoencephalographic evidence of early right hemisphere overactivation during metaphor comprehension in schizophrenia

Zeev‐Wolf, Maor; Faust, Miriam; Levkovitz, Yechiel; Harpaz, Yuval; Goldstein, Abraham

doi:10.1111/psyp.12408

Cited by 22 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 66 publications

(85 reference statements)

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“…The right cerebral hemisphere uniquely contributes to the processing of novel metaphoric word pairs, which involves the creation of new meanings from these unusual relations. This view has been empirically supported by neurocognitive studies both in typical ( Lai et al, 2009 ; Goldstein et al, 2012 ; Lai and Curran, 2013 ) and atypical ( Gold and Faust, 2010 ; Gold et al, 2010 ; Zeev-Wolf et al, 2015 ) populations. The processing of novel metaphors requires a flexible, higher connected semantic memory structure that facilitates understanding of newly created combinations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…The findings of several studies to date suggest that although both conventional and novel metaphors involve some kind of semantic violation, they may be regarded as distinct linguistic expressions which involve different semantic processing mechanisms ( Giora, 1997 ; Bowdle and Gentner, 2005 ; Faust, 2012 ; Mirous and Beeman, 2012 ). Such a distinction has also been shown at the neurocognitive level, both in typical ( Arzouan et al, 2007b ; Lai et al, 2009 ; Goldstein et al, 2012 ; Lai and Curran, 2013 ; Mashal et al, 2015 ) and atypical ( Gold and Faust, 2010 , 2012 ; Zeev-Wolf et al, 2014 , 2015 ) populations. Under this framework, conventional metaphors are comprehended based on the pre-established, salient semantic relations in memory between the individual words constituting the conventional metaphor ( Bowdle and Gentner, 2005 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 73%

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Metaphor Comprehension in Low and High Creative Individuals

2018

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The comprehension of metaphors involves the ability to activate a broader, more flexible set of semantic associations in order to integrate the meanings of the weakly related parts of the metaphor into a meaningful linguistic expression. Previous findings point to a relation between levels of creativity and efficiency in processing metaphoric expressions, as measured by reaction times (RTs) and error rates. Furthermore, recent studies have found that more creative individuals exhibit a relatively more flexible semantic memory structure compared to less creative individuals, which may facilitate their comprehension of novel metaphors. In the present study, lower and higher creative individuals performed a semantic relatedness judgment task on word pairs. These word pairs comprised four types of semantic relations: novel metaphors, conventional metaphors, literal word pairs, and meaningless word pairs. We hypothesized that the two groups will perform similarly in comprehending the literal, unrelated, and the conventional metaphoric word pairs. However, with respect to novel metaphors, we predicted that higher creative individuals will demonstrate better performance compared to lower creative individuals, as indicated by smaller RTs and more accurate responses. Our main finding shows that higher creative individuals were faster in comprehending both types of metaphors, conventional and novel, compared to lower creative individuals. Furthermore, higher creative individuals were significantly more accurate than lower creative individual only in comprehending novel metaphors. The findings are discussed in light of previous findings regarding the relation between metaphor comprehension, semantic memory, and creativity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Metaphor Comprehension in Low and High Creative Individuals

2018

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“…However, even Chapman's (Chapman, 1960 ) historical investigation highlights that the error pattern in schizophrenia also includes the opposite error, which is the metaphoric interpretation of literal-intended sentences. This type of error, which is also frequently seen for other nonliteral language like proverbs and irony (Hensler, 2009 ; Rapp et al, 2014 ), may represent a correlation of widening semantic associations in some patients with schizophrenia (Kircher, 2003 ; Kircher et al, 2007 ; Zeev-Wolf et al, 2015 ). Wide semantic associations, meaning the “openness” of the recipient to accept semantic interrelations at the “borderline” would theoretically facilitate acceptance of novel metaphoric relationships on the one hand (Faust and Weisper, 2000 ; Rapp et al, 2004 ; Mashal et al, 2005 ) and is a well-known phenomenon in thought-disordered patients with schizophrenia on the other hand (Spitzer et al, 1993 ; Kircher et al, 2001 , 2007 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…The main result was that patients with schizophrenia made more errors than controls, both in misinterpreting figurative meanings as literal and vice versa, with the first type of error being significantly more frequent. Chapman‘s finding of altered metaphor comprehension in schizophrenia has been replicated a number of times since then (Rapp and Schmierer, 2010 ; Zeev-Wolf et al, 2015 ), including studies of first-episode patients (Anand et al, 1994 ), remitted subjects (Herold et al, 2002 ; Mo et al, 2008 ), and longitudinal studies (Bergemann et al, 2008 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

The Comprehension of Familiar and Novel Metaphoric Meanings in Schizophrenia: A Pilot Study

et al. 2018

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Miscomprehension of nonliteral (“figurative”) language like metaphors, proverbs, idioms, and ironic expressions by patients with schizophrenia is a phenomenon mentioned already in historical psychiatric descriptions. However, it was only recently that studies did differentiate between novel and conventional metaphors, a factor that is known to influence the difficulty of comprehension in healthy subjects. Further, familiarity with stimuli is an important factor for comprehension, which was not recommended in utmost previous studies. In this study, 23 patients with DSM IV schizophrenia and 19 healthy control subjects performed a newly-developed German metaphor comprehension test with three types of stimuli: novel metaphors, conventional German metaphors, and meaningless statements. During the test procedure, participants indicated familiarity with the stimulus and then matched the meaning with one out of four given alternatives. Familiarity rankings did not significantly differ between patients and control subjects. However, on descriptive level, there was a tendency for healthy controls to be more familiar with conventional metaphors than schizophrenic patients. Further, comprehension of conventional and novel metaphors differed significantly between the groups, with higher performance in healthy controls. Considering only those metaphors that had been ranked as familiar, patients only revealed significant lower performance opposed to controls regarding novel metaphors, while they did not differ in conventional metaphors. Taken together, the results indicate that patients with schizophrenia might show an altered way of comprehension in novel metaphors, leading to more misunderstandings. However, their previously reported impairments in conventional metaphors might rather be due to a lack of familiarity with the stimuli—making conventional metaphors to novel metaphors in the individual case.

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“…Indirect priming occurs when the prime and target are not directly related, but mediated by another concept (e.g., prime CAT and target CHEESE are mediated by MOUSE). Indirect priming reflects a less constrained, or more diffuse, spread of activation ( Weisbrod et al, 1998 ; Zeev-Wolf et al, 2014 , 2015 ). Greater indirect priming is associated with positive schizotypy ( Kerns and Berenbaum, 2000 ; Morgan et al, 2006 ), or disorganized schizotypy ( Tan and Rossell, 2017 ), and diffuse (i.e., less targeted or disinhibited) semantic processing is associated with higher schizotypy in general ( Morgan et al, 2006 ; Grimshaw et al, 2010 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role for Positive Schizotypy and Hallucination Proneness in Semantic Processing

et al. 2020

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Semantic processing underpins the organization of verbal information for both storage and retrieval. Deficits in semantic processing are associated with both the risk for and symptoms presented in schizophrenia. However, studies are mixed and could reflect the confounding effects of medication and symptom heterogeneity. Therefore, we considered whether two risk phenotypes, positive schizotypy and hallucinatory predisposition, present in the general population were associated with differential responding profiles for a semantic processing task. One hundred and eighty-three participants completed the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale, National Adult Reading Test, a handedness measure, and a computerized semantic relatedness judgment task. Pairs of words were related through their dominant or subordinate meanings, or unrelated. Participants were divided into four groups using a mean split on cognitive-perceptual (positive) schizotypy and hallucination proneness. Significant differences between groups were found for reaction time on the semantic relatedness task, with the high cognitive-perceptual schizotypy groups responding significantly slower to all word pairs compared to their low scoring counterparts. There was some evidence that high hallucination proneness was associated with significantly faster reaction times which may reflect disinhibitive processes, however additional support is required. The results suggest that these two components of psychosis risk are associated with different patterns of responding to semantic processing. More diffuse activation of semantic information appeared to be associated with positive schizotypy, while those predisposed to hallucinations appeared to respond quicker. These results have significant implications in the re-conceptualization of hallucination proneness as distinct from positive schizotypy. Additional research is required to investigate the association between psychotic-like experiences separate from personality variables such as positive schizotypy and semantic processing.

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Magnetoencephalographic evidence of early right hemisphere overactivation during metaphor comprehension in schizophrenia

Cited by 22 publications

References 66 publications

Metaphor Comprehension in Low and High Creative Individuals

Metaphor Comprehension in Low and High Creative Individuals

The Comprehension of Familiar and Novel Metaphoric Meanings in Schizophrenia: A Pilot Study

Role for Positive Schizotypy and Hallucination Proneness in Semantic Processing

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