Assessment of Pragmatic Disorders in Persian-Speaking Adults with Acquired Brain Injury

Document Type : Scientific Research

Authors
mahla arianpour 1
Mohammad Amin Mozaheb 2
1 Ph.D in linguistics. Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Encyclopedia Compiling Research Center. Tehran, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor in TEFL, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran, Iran.
10.48311/lrr.2025.7130
Abstract
This study investigates pragmatic communication abilities in Persian-speaking adults with acquired brain injury (ABI), focusing on patients with right-hemisphere damage (RHD) and left-hemisphere damage (LHD). Pragmatic competence, crucial for interpreting metaphors and speech acts, depends on distributed neural networks, with increasing evidence highlighting the right hemisphere's critical role in processing non-literal meaning, inferencing, and social cues. Despite extensive research in non-Persian populations, evidence on pragmatic impairments in Persian speakers with focal brain injuries is limited. This study evaluates and compares pragmatic performance across RHD and LHD groups using the Montreal Protocol for the Evaluation of Communication (MEC). Results indicated that 60% of RHD patients exhibited pragmatic deficits compared to 30% of LHD patients, though group differences were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Lesions in temporal lobe regions and adjacent areas were consistently associated with pragmatic impairments, suggesting a significant role for these regions in higher-level communication. These findings support a stronger role for the right hemisphere in non-literal meaning and contextual cue interpretation within the Persian language context.
Keywords
brain injury
pragmatics
right hemisphere damage
left hemisphere damage
Persian speakers
Montreal Protocol for the Evaluation of Communication
Subjects
رقیب‌دوست، شهلا، مدرسی‌تهرانی، یحیی، فره، پرین، اسکا، برندت، کوته، الن و ژوانت، ایوز. پروتکل ارزیابی مهارت‌های ارتباطی مونترال (ام. ای. سی). (در دست انتشار).
سیدیان، مازیار، فلاح، مهتاب، نوروزیان، مریم، نجات، سحرناز، دلاور، علی و قاسم‌زاده، حبیب‌الله. (۱۳۸۶). تهیه و تعیین اعتبار نسخه فارسی آزمون کوتاه وضعیت ذهنی. مجله علمی سازمان نظام پزشکی جمهوری اسلامی ایران. ۲۵(۴)، ۴۱۴-۴۰۸.
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