IS THERE a place in the brain where metaphors are understood? A study of patients with localised brain damage suggests there is.
Vilayanur Ramachandran and his colleagues at the University of California at San Diego were intrigued by four patients who were mentally lucid, fluent in English and highly intelligent, but could not understand proverbs.
When one of the patients was asked to explain the adage “all that glitters is not gold”, for instance, he completely missed the metaphorical angle, replying that people should be careful when buying jewellery.
All the patients had damage to part of the brain called…
