Music & Language Studies

ROSS, Elliott D., and Marek-Marsel Mesulam. “Dominant Language Functions of the Right Hemisphere? Prosody and Emotional Gesturing.” Archives of Neurology 36 (Mar 1979): 144-48.

Describes two cases of loss of the affective qualities of speech due to a right-hemispheric lesion in the supra-Sylvian portions of the right posterior frontal and anterior parietal lobes. One of the patients eventually recovered affective prosody, while the other remained aprosodic. Both patients retained the ability to feel emotions and to perceive emotions in others, while lacking the ability to produce affective tones of voice in their speech. Argues convincingly for a revised understanding of cerebral dominance, and an expanded definition for the linguistic faculties.

The left hemisphere, because it possesses special language capabilities, has been designated as the “major” or “dominant” hemisphere. Nevertheless, there is compelling evidence to suggest that the right or “minor” hemisphere is superior if not dominant for modulating certain aspects of higher cortical functions; these include musical faculties, visuospatial analysis, the holistic perception of objects and faces, the copying of figures, and emotional behavior. In fact, as demonstrated by the two cases reported here, the right hemisphere may even contribute certain dominant linguistic features to spoken language. The concept of cerebral dominance becomes precise, therefore, only when it is stated that a given hemisphere is dominant for a specific function. Neuroanatomical studies of lesions causing aphasic disorders have clearly established that the left hemisphere in right-handed adults has a dominant role in the neural processes governing the production and comprehension of speech. In contrast, the contribution of the right hemisphere to linguistic functions is usually considered rudimentary at best. This dichotomy is principally based on observations concerning the lexical, grammatical, and articulatory aspects of language and does not take into account that the full spectrum of spoken language also includes prosody (the coloring, melody, and cadence of speech) and emotional gesturing. These two linguistic features are particularly crucial for allowing spoken language to acquire emotional and thus affective tone. (p. 144)