referohemi

Referohemi is a hypothetical concept in neurolinguistics describing a proposed mechanism for how referential information is integrated across the brain's hemispheres during language processing. The term combines refero, from Latin referre to bring back or report, and hemi, meaning half, signaling a cross-hemispheric reference-binding function. In this framework, referohemi is not a distinct brain region but a process that coordinates initial encoding of referents in one hemisphere with contextual reinterpretation in the other, enabling stable interpretation of pronouns, anaphora, and deictic expressions in complex discourse.

Concept and scope: The theory posits a dynamic binding of cues (discourse context, world knowledge) through transient interhemispheric communication, possibly mediated by the corpus callosum. It aims to account for observed variability in pronoun resolution and cross-linguistic differences in referential ambiguity.

Status and critique: As of now referohemi remains a speculative construct. It has not been demonstrated as a discrete neural mechanism in standard neuroimaging studies. Critics argue that existing data on hemispheric specialization and language processing do not require a separate referohemi process; others suggest it could be subsumed under broader models of interhemispheric integration.

Relation: It intersects with theories of reference, binding, and hemispheric specialization, such as the dual-stream model, and may be tested via experiments manipulating discourse context and using fMRI or diffusion tensor imaging to assess interhemispheric connectivity during referential tasks.