It is striking that many people with brain injuries, after sustaining the injury, take language literally. Complex language such as proverbs, sayings, irony and jokes seem difficult to understand and are often taken literally. This can lead to unpleasant situations and even arguments and misunderstandings.

 

Example

The most well-known example is that of a couple walking to an appointment.

He is apparently in a hurry and is walking too fast for his wife.
His wife woman is panting from tiredness behind him and calls out ironically to her husband with brain damage:

"Can you walk even faster??" This was meant ironically, because she could barely keep up with him.

Her husband man takes language literally and starts walking even faster. After all, that was what he was asked to do.

 

There are also people who do not correct the error in the brain. This is due to the severity of their damage in the language area of ​​the brain. But also people with brain injury without damage in the language areas can take language literally due to the delayed information processing.

 

Delayed information processing

Many people with brain injuries have a slowed rate of information processing. Thinking is generally a bit more difficult than before the injury and certainly if someone is already tired and overloaded or sensory, cognitive or emotional overstimulated.
A mistake in thinking can then quickly happen. If the sentence does not fit what the brain expects to be said, extra milliseconds pass before 'the penny drops'.
People with delayed information processing can be very tired of talking and listening.

 

Thinking in pictures

The brain areas support each other in interpreting words.

One of these compensations is that people tend to 'think in pictures', to visualize what has been said in their minds. This can lead to comical mistakes, but here too it can lead to arguments and tensions if the wrong picture comes to mind. What about the sentences 'the walls have ears' and 'take it with a pinch of salt'?

 

Lower frontal gyrus

People with autism may also take language literally. Scientists from Nijmegen measured brain activity in people with autism and healthy subjects using a special MEG brain scan.

The right frontal gyrus (in the image below 1,2,3), a brain area at the front of the brain, was much more active in people with autism when they heard a sentence pronounced that did not fit the speaker.

 

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FrontalCaptsLateral.png

 

They noticed that the left hemisphere, which is normally used more for language, calls upon the help of the right hemisphere, for complex language use or language that you can take literally. How is this for people with brain damage? Research will have to point that out.

 

Word meanings spread across the brain

As scientific research shows, word meanings are spread across the entire brain.
The first meaning of the Dutch word 'top' (bra, shirt) is in a completely different place in the brain than the second meaning (fingertip) or the third meaning (tip of an iceberg). Something is 'top!' if it is incredibly good.
The brain searches for the second meaning in milliseconds when it discovers that the first meaning is incorrect. This can vary from 20 to 50 milliseconds.
These detours can be tiring for people who take language literally. They quickly get tired of talking and listening.

 

Summary

A combination of one or more listed causes can underlie 'taking language literally':

 

• delayed information processing
• thinking in pictures
• damage in specific brain areas where language is processed
• word meanings are spread throughout the brain and are reached via a roundabout route

 

Taking language literally falls under the heading of pragmatic language disorder. Read more about a pragmatic language disorder.

 

Inferior frontal gyrus

In 1861, the French physician and anatomist Broca described a patient with damage to the left inferior frontal gyrus, resulting in a speech problem.

The text below is about the the Wikipedia page about Broca's area

In several classifications, area 44 and area 45 are seen as parts of, involved in speech production. Sometimes, however, area 47 is also considered part of this whole.