Real-time examinations of lexical processing in aphasics

We argue that the lesion localizing value of disruptions to modular information processing systems emerges most clearly from on-line analyses of processing. In this respect we seek to show that left anterior (but not left posterior) damage causes slowed information access and we discuss the manner in which this slowing might yield some of the specific syntactic limitations charted in Broca's aphasia. The general possibility we raise is that the cortical area implicated in Broca's aphasia is not necessarily the locus of syntactic representations, but rather sustains particular time-based operating characteristics that in turn sustain normal real-time parsing.This research was supported in part by NIH grants NS11408 and NS06209 to Boston University School of Medicine and by the Research Service of the Veterans Administration.