Abstract：
:Previous research from our group suggests that patients with lesions in the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL)-which is concerned with abstract numerical cognition and cross-modal association (which is consistent with its strategic location at the crossroads between the temporal, parietal and occipital lobes) have difficulty understanding proverbs and metaphors (Ramachandran and Hubbard, 2001). In the current pilot investigation, we report "metaphor blindness" in a college student population; that is, either the complete inability or difficulty for otherwise intellectually non-challenged individuals to comprehend metaphors of language. Participants (N=205) read 12 metaphorical ("The detective jumped at the clue") and 12 literal ("The accident was a fall") sentences and had to decide whether the sentences conveyed a metaphorical or literal meaning. The mean accuracy for these metaphorical sentences was 11.0 (SD=2.3; RNG=0-12); the mean accuracy for literal sentences was 7.2 (SD=1.8; RNG=2-10). We found that 5% of participants (11/205) were unable or had difficulty understanding metaphors (i.e., were statistical outliers), while their score for literal sentences felt within a normal statistical range M=8.3 (SD=2.3; RNG=5-10). Follow-up control procedures were conducted in order to help ascertain that the results were not due to low verbal IQ and task difficulty. Likewise, none of the "metaphor blind" participants reported any psychiatric or neurological histories that would impair language comprehension, including strokes, brain injuries, language problems dyslexia, and signs of late language onset. The results are very preliminary and future studies are needed to confirm these findings. We suggest that brain modules may be specialized even for subtle functions like metaphor and their formation in embryogenesis may be controlled by small handfuls of genes whose expression can go awry--as in "metaphor blindness".
journal_name
Med Hypothesesjournal_title
Medical hypothesesauthors
Jalal B,Ramachandran VSdoi
10.1016/j.mehy.2014.01.033subject
Has Abstractpub_date
2014-06-01 00:00:00pages
648-51issue
6eissn
0306-9877issn
1532-2777pii
S0306-9877(14)00044-9journal_volume
82pub_type
杂志文章abstract：:Previous papers of our group have reported that, in the first stages of nutritional recovery, the needs of undernourished infants, in terms of Protein Calories percentage (P%) were higher than normal, and similar to those of other mammals which double their birth weight faster than man. During this period, a high diet...
journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/0306-9877(85)90045-3
更新日期：1985-10-01 00:00:00
abstract：:The origin and initiating features of PBC remain obscure despite decades of study. However, recent papers have demonstrated loss of canals of Hering (CoH) to be the earliest histologic change in liver biopsy specimens from patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). We posit that CoH loss prior to significant inf...
journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2020.109680
更新日期：2020-03-16 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2013.09.021
更新日期：2013-12-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/0306-9877(91)90229-r
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
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更新日期：2004-01-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
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更新日期：2013-04-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章,评审
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更新日期：1987-07-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
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更新日期：2016-09-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2019.02.027
更新日期：2019-04-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2012.07.024
更新日期：2012-11-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
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更新日期：2004-01-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 社论
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2009.05.002
更新日期：2009-09-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/s0306-9877(98)90267-5
更新日期：1998-06-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2016.06.007
更新日期：2016-08-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/0306-9877(87)90044-2
更新日期：1987-09-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2020.109955
更新日期：2020-11-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2008.02.021
更新日期：2008-10-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2014.02.012
更新日期：2014-05-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/0306-9877(86)90086-1
更新日期：1986-05-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2005.08.020
更新日期：2006-01-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/0306-9877(88)90010-2
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/s0306-9877(98)90201-8
更新日期：1998-02-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2004.02.010
更新日期：2004-01-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2011.09.022
更新日期：2011-12-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章,评审
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更新日期：2008-01-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2005.01.026
更新日期：2005-01-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2012.04.019
更新日期：2012-07-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2012.03.031
更新日期：2012-08-01 00:00:00
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journal_title：Medical hypotheses
pub_type： 杂志文章
doi：10.1016/j.mehy.2006.02.051
更新日期：2006-01-01 00:00:00
