Cerebral processing of proper and common nouns: Perception and production following left hemisphere damage

The goal of this study was to further investigate hemispheric specialization for proper and common nouns by examining the ability of individuals with left hemisphere damage (LHD) to perceive and verbally reproduce famous names and matched common names compared with the performance of matched healthy controls (HC). Ten individuals with LHD due to stroke and 16 age- and education-matched HC completed recognition and production tasks of famous proper and common nouns. All tasks were designed as split-visual field experiments, modelled after the study done by Ohnesorge and Van Lancker. Results contribute to a better understanding of hemispheric roles in perception and production of famous proper nouns, suggesting that (1) both hemispheres can recognize famous proper nouns, possibly due to a right hemisphere role in personal relevance and (2) production of proper nouns as well as common nouns is associated with left hemisphere.