Semantic, perceptual and number space: relations between category width and spatial processing.

Brugger, Peter; Loetscher, Tobias; Graves, Roger E; Knoch, Daria (2007). Semantic, perceptual and number space: relations between category width and spatial processing. Neuroscience letters, 418(2), pp. 133-137. Elsevier 10.1016/j.neulet.2007.03.012

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Coarse semantic encoding and broad categorization behavior are the hallmarks of the right cerebral hemisphere's contribution to language processing. We correlated 40 healthy subjects' breadth of categorization as assessed with Pettigrew's category width scale with lateral asymmetries in perceptual and representational space. Specifically, we hypothesized broader category width to be associated with larger leftward spatial biases. For the 20 men, but not the 20 women, this hypothesis was confirmed both in a lateralized tachistoscopic task with chimeric faces and a random digit generation task; the higher a male participant's score on category width, the more pronounced were his left-visual field bias in the judgement of chimeric faces and his small-number preference in digit generation ("small" is to the left of "large" in number space). Subjects' category width was unrelated to lateral displacements in a blindfolded tactile-motor rod centering task. These findings indicate that visual-spatial functions of the right hemisphere should not be considered independent of the same hemisphere's contribution to language. Linguistic and spatial cognition may be more tightly interwoven than is currently assumed.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology
UniBE Contributor:	Knoch, Daria
Subjects:	100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology
ISSN:	0304-3940
Publisher:	Elsevier
Language:	English
Submitter:	Irène Gonce-Gyr
Date Deposited:	22 Dec 2014 11:44
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 14:38
Publisher DOI:	10.1016/j.neulet.2007.03.012
PubMed ID:	17400383
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/61201