Recognition and naming of object-drawings by men with focal brain wounds

Abstract

The ability to name object-drawings, measured by score and response latency, was examined in men with chronic, focal brain lesions due to missile injury. The group with left hemisphere lesions was significantly impaired on both measures and this impairment was clearly related to the incidence of clinically detectable dysphasia. In contrast, the impairment of the bilateral group was not closely associated with dysphasia; it was characterized by long response latencies which exceeded the sum of unilateral deficits in the task. Analysis of response errors showed that both misnaming and misidentification occurred but were often dissociated. Difficulty in naming was noted in men with lesions involving the left temporal lobe. Misidentification was not common; it occured more frequently in the bilateral group, in men with lesions of the occipital areas of the brain. Dissociated deficits were also noted within the group of men with residual dysphasia.