The Right Hemisphere’s Capacity for Language: Evidence from Primary Progressive Aphasia

EasyChair Preprint 6412

Abstract

Despite numerous studies investigating the right hemisphere’s (RH) language processing capacity, this question is still vigorously debated. The current study aims to provide additional evidence from analyzing white matter (WM) tract integrity in Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). Previous PPA research has highlighted differences in WM tract integrity between PPA and healthy individuals and associations of tract integrity with language processing, primarily in the LH. This study examines these issues in both hemispheres, and also investigates the effects of disease progression on each hemisphere’s role in language processing.

We found, in PPA, a strong relationship in the left hemisphere between language performance and the integrity of WM tracts across multiple language domains. Further, this relationship was significantly affected by disease progression. Importantly, we also found language processing performance was also strongly associated with WM integrity in the right hemisphere. These results provide novel evidence of the right hemisphere’s capacity for language and point to the effects of disease progression on the relationships between white matter integrity and language.

Keyphrases: language processing, primary progressive aphasia, right hemisphere, white matter

@booklet{EasyChair:6412,
  author    = {Kyriaki Neophytou and Robert Wiley and Kyrana Tsapkini and Brenda Rapp},
  title     = {The Right Hemisphere’s Capacity for Language: Evidence from Primary Progressive Aphasia},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 6412},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2021}}