Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background
Co-speech gestures are omnipresent and a crucial element of human interaction by facilitating language comprehension. However, it is unclear whether gestures also support language comprehension in aphasic patients. Using visual exploration behavior analysis, the present study aimed to investigate the influence of congruence between speech and co-speech gestures on comprehension in terms of accuracy in a decision task.Method
Twenty aphasic patients and 30 healthy controls watched videos in which speech was either combined with meaningless (baseline condition), congruent, or incongruent gestures. Comprehension was assessed with a decision task, while remote eye-tracking allowed analysis of visual exploration.Results
In aphasic patients, the incongruent condition resulted in a significant decrease of accuracy, while the congruent condition led to a significant increase in accuracy compared to baseline accuracy. In the control group, the incongruent condition resulted in a decrease in accuracy, while the congruent condition did not significantly increase the accuracy. Visual exploration analysis showed that patients fixated significantly less on the face and tended to fixate more on the gesturing hands compared to controls.Conclusion
Co-speech gestures play an important role for aphasic patients as they modulate comprehension. Incongruent gestures evoke significant interference and deteriorate patients' comprehension. In contrast, congruent gestures enhance comprehension in aphasic patients, which might be valuable for clinical and therapeutic purposes.
SUBMITTER: Eggenberger N
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4703302 | biostudies-literature | 2016
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Eggenberger Noëmi N Preisig Basil C BC Schumacher Rahel R Hopfner Simone S Vanbellingen Tim T Nyffeler Thomas T Gutbrod Klemens K Annoni Jean-Marie JM Bohlhalter Stephan S Cazzoli Dario D Müri René M RM
PloS one 20160106 1
<h4>Background</h4>Co-speech gestures are omnipresent and a crucial element of human interaction by facilitating language comprehension. However, it is unclear whether gestures also support language comprehension in aphasic patients. Using visual exploration behavior analysis, the present study aimed to investigate the influence of congruence between speech and co-speech gestures on comprehension in terms of accuracy in a decision task.<h4>Method</h4>Twenty aphasic patients and 30 healthy contro ...[more]