The language–gesture connection: Evidence from aphasia

Figures & data

Table 1. Summary of participants’ background test scores.

Motor skills and apraxia
Action Research Arm Test (Lyle, 1981) This is a continuous measure, with no categorical cut-off scores, where 0 indicates complete paralysis, and 57 indicates normal performance	Seven participants with aphasia (PWA) scored 0 for one upper limb Two PWA also had low scores (12/57 and 3/57) for one limb These nine PWA had full use of the other upper limb Twenty PWA had high or perfect scores for both upper limbs
Birmingham University Praxis Screen (Bickerton et al., 2012) and The Test for Motor Apraxia (Poek, 1986)	None of the PWA obtained scores indicating limb apraxia
Language
WAB-R	Participants’ aphasia quotient scores on the WAB-R ranged from 40.1 to 89.7 (mean = 73.46, SD = 14.15) A range of aphasia types was identified: Anomia (N = 16). Conduction (N = 6) Broca’s (N = 4) Wernicke’s (N = 3)
An Object and Action Naming Battery (Druks & Masterson, 2000)	Objects: Range of scores = 2–98%; Mean = 74%; SD = 24 Actions: Range of scores = 0–88%; Mean = 54.07%; SD = 24

Figure 1. Lexical items used in the verbal descriptions of “swing”.

Figure 2. Semantic content of the gesture used to describe “swing”.

Figure 3. Descriptions of the “roll” event by PWA.

Table 2. Examples of light/heavy language and gesture.

	Controls	PWA
List of verbs produced to describe the key events, categorised as semantically heavy or light
“Roll” event	Heavy – roll, shoot, run Light – go, come	Heavy – roll, jump, run Light – go
“Swing” event	Heavy – swing, jump, fly Light – get	Heavy – fly, throw, jump, turn Light – come, go, get, take
List of gestures produced to describe the key events, categorised as semantically heavy or light
	Controls	PWA
“Roll” event	Heavy – manner gestures, and manner + path gestures Light – path only gestures	Heavy – manner gestures, and manner + path gestures Light – path only gestures
“Swing” event	Heavy –gestures including an arc-shaped trajectory Light – gestures indicating only a flat path	Heavy – gestures including an arc-shaped trajectory Light – gestures indicating only a flat path

Table 3. Gesture–language matches and mismatches.

	Match		Mismatch
	Language	Gesture	Language	Gesture
“Roll”	“Roll” + prepostional phrase	Manner + path	“Roll” −– prepostional phrase	Manner + path
			“Go” +/ prepositional phrase	Manner + path
	“Roll” +/− prepostional phrase	Manner	“Go” +/− prepositional phrase	Manner
	“Go^a” +/− prepositional phrase	Path	“Roll” /−+ prepositinal phrase	Path
	“Swing”	“Swing” +/− prepostional phrase	Arc	“Swing” +/− prepostional phrase	Flat path
“Go” +/− prepositional phrase		Flat path	“Go” +/− prepositional phrase	Arc

^a“go” refers either to the verb “go” or another manner- or path-neutral verb, such as “come”.

Figure 4. Gesture–language mismatches (both events combined).