Inference comprehension in text reading: Performance of individuals with right- versus left-hemisphere lesions and the influence of cognitive functions

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 13; no. 5; p. e0197195
• Main Authors: Silagi, Marcela Lima, Radanovic, Marcia, Conforto, Adriana Bastos, Mendonça, Lucia Iracema Zanotto, Mansur, Leticia Lessa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 24.05.2018; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Attention - physiology; Audiology; Biology and Life Sciences; Brain; Brain Injuries - diagnostic imaging; Brain Injuries - physiopathology; Brain Injuries - rehabilitation; Case-Control Studies; Cerebrum - diagnostic imaging; Cerebrum - physiopathology; Cognition; Cognition - physiology; Cognitive ability; Comparative studies; Comprehension - physiology; Covariance; Education; Executive function; Executive Function - physiology; Female; Functional Laterality; Hemispheres; Hemispheric laterality; Humans; Inference; Language; Lesions; Linguistics; Male; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Memory; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Middle Aged; Neural networks; Neuroimaging; Neuropsychological Tests; Occupational therapy; Orientation, Spatial - physiology; Pathology; Patients; Physical therapy; Reading; Reading comprehension; Semantics; Social Sciences; Speech therapy; Studies; Visual perception; Visual Perception - physiology; Brazil
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197195

Right-hemisphere lesions (RHL) may impair inference comprehension. However, comparative studies between left-hemisphere lesions (LHL) and RHL are rare, especially regarding reading comprehension. Moreover, further knowledge of the influence of cognition on inferential processing in this task is needed. To compare the performance of patients with RHL and LHL on an inference reading comprehension task. We also aimed to analyze the effects of lesion site and to verify correlations between cognitive functions and performance on the task. Seventy-five subjects were equally divided into the groups RHL, LHL, and control group (CG). The Implicit Management Test was used to evaluate inference comprehension. In this test, subjects read short written passages and subsequently answer five types of questions (explicit, logical, distractor, pragmatic, and other), which require different types of inferential reasoning. The cognitive functional domains of attention, memory, executive functions, language, and visuospatial abilities were assessed using the Cognitive Linguistic Quick Test (CLQT). The LHL and RHL groups presented difficulties in inferential comprehension in comparison with the CG. However, the RHL group presented lower scores than the LHL group on logical, pragmatic and other questions. A covariance analysis did not show any effect of lesion site within the hemispheres. Overall, all cognitive domains were correlated with all the types of questions from the inference test (especially logical, pragmatic, and other). Attention and visuospatial abilities affected the scores of both the RHL and LHL groups, and only memory influenced the performance of the RHL group. Lesions in either hemisphere may cause difficulties in making inferences during reading. However, processing more complex inferences was more difficult for patients with RHL than for those with LHL, which suggests that the right hemisphere plays an important role in tasks with higher comprehension demands. Cognition influences inferential processing during reading in brain-injured subjects.