A piece of the action: modulation of sensory-motor regions by action idioms and metaphors. Neuroimage 2013 Dec;83:862-9
Date
07/31/2013Pubmed ID
23891645Pubmed Central ID
PMC3819432DOI
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.07.044Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84882668139 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 106 CitationsAbstract
The idea that the conceptual system draws on sensory and motor systems has received considerable experimental support in recent years. Whether the tight coupling between sensory-motor and conceptual systems is modulated by factors such as context or task demands is a matter of controversy. Here, we tested the context sensitivity of this coupling by using action verbs in three different types of sentences in an fMRI study: literal action, apt but non-idiomatic action metaphors, and action idioms. Abstract sentences served as a baseline. The result showed involvement of sensory-motor areas for literal and metaphoric action sentences, but not for idiomatic ones. A trend of increasing sensory-motor activation from abstract to idiomatic to metaphoric to literal sentences was seen. These results support a gradual abstraction process whereby the reliance on sensory-motor systems is reduced as the abstractness of meaning as well as conventionalization is increased, highlighting the context sensitive nature of semantic processing.
Author List
Desai RH, Conant LL, Binder JR, Park H, Seidenberg MSAuthor
Jeffrey R. Binder MD Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdolescentAdult
Brain Mapping
Comprehension
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Language
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Metaphor
Reading
Semantics
Somatosensory Cortex
Young Adult
