Spared comprehension of emotional prosody in a patient with global aphasia.

Abstract

Background: Several studies have demonstrated that patients with right hemisphere damage, when compared with left-hemisphere damaged controls, are impaired at comprehending emotional prosody. Critics of these studies, however, note that selection may have been biased because left-hemisphere-damaged subjects had good verbal comprehension.

Objective: To learn whether a subject with a large left hemisphere stroke and global aphasia could comprehend emotional prosody in spoken material.

Method: The authors formally tested speech and language with the Western Aphasia Battery and comprehension of emotional prosody and emotional facial expression with the Florida Affect Battery.

Results: The patient could not perform verbally mediated tests but demonstrated spared ability to match emotional prosody to emotional facial expressions under a variety of conditions.

Conclusions: These observations further support the idea that verbal and emotional communication systems are independent and mediated by different hemispheres.