10 - The role of the right hemisphere for language in schizophrenia

Summary

This chapter reviews the lateralization processes for non-literal language in healthy subjects, brain lesioned patients, and schizophrenia patients with special focus on metaphor, proverbs, idioms, irony, and sarcasm. Impaired non-literal language comprehension skills in schizophrenia have been demonstrated for all types of non-literal language. Few studies have investigated the relationship between non-literal language comprehension and psychopathology in schizophrenia. Laterality of non-literal language comprehension in schizophrenia has been of scientific interest for some time. Impaired non-literal language comprehension skills have been seen as an argument for right hemisphere involvement in the pathophysiology of the disorder. Functional imaging studies may help to clarify the question whether a right or left hemisphere deficit is crucial for non-literal language comprehension deficits in schizophrenia. The general consensus used to be that non-literal language represents a "right hemisphere language function" and that thereby these deficits are an evidence for a right hemisphere deficit in schizophrenia.