Although right hemisphere brain damage (RHD) does not result in typical language disorders, recent research has documented a role for the right hemisphere in communication. Right hemisphere damage interferes with the interpretation of intended meanings, from both linguistic and nonlinguistic messages. The available literature suggests that RHD adults retain some knowledge of intended meanings, but may have difficulty applying this knowledge appropriately in specific contexts. Current approaches in cognitive psychology are well suited to test this apparent dissociation between knowledge of intended meanings and its appropriate situational application. The retrieval of information from memory has been demonstrated to depend on two distinct components of attention: an automatic spread of activation among related concepts, which occurs without a perceiver's intention or awareness; and the conscious allocation of attention to select from the activated information for further processing and integration. The integrity of underlying mental representations is inferred from the results of priming studies, which examine whether the speed (or accuracy) of judging some target stimulus is improved by preceding that target with a related stimulus, or prime. The distinction between automatic and conscious mental operations provides the impetus for this proposal. Its purpose is to clarify the nature of the problems RHD adults have in interpreting intended meanings. Priming experiments have been designed to investigate how RHD alters the structure of processing of two types of intended meaning representations. The first study examines appreciation of emotional information conveyed by tone-of-voice, and the second addresses the figurative meanings of single words. Three group of 36 subjects each (RHD, left hemisphere damaged, and normal controls) will be studied. Several potential follow-up studies are also proposed to extend the line of reasoning form the first two experiments with varying task demands and presentations.
