Interpretação de metáforas em lesados de hemisfério direito : há uma dissociação entre expressões idiomáticas e não-idiomáticas?

Abstract

The role o f the right brain hemisphere on non-literallanguage such as metaphors is highlighted in the literature. This research aimed to verify if there is a standardized dissociation between novel metaphors and idioms processing by rightbrain- damaged participants, as well as if there are clinicai pro files in this sample taking into account their metaphor processing and how each subgroup can be characterized. The sample was formed by 29 right-brain-damaged individuais. They were assessed through two metaphor interpretation tasks: 1) 10 novel sentences (with idiomatic interpretation? ... ) and 2) 10 idioms. Data were analyzed by the application of the Pearson correlation coefficient and by clusters analysis. There was a double dissociation between the performance in the two metaphor types, observed in two of four clusters. Although the right hemisphere has shown to be important for the whole metaphoric processing, it does not seem to present a specific role in novel metaphors comprehension, at least in the evaluated sample.