A critical look at the embodied cognition hypothesis and a new proposal for grounding conceptual content

Mahon, Bradford Z.; Caramazza, Alfonso

doi:10.1016/j.jphysparis.2008.03.004

Cited by 948 publications

(992 citation statements)

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“…Such results have been taken as evidence that motor networks in the brain are involved in the processing of action-related language, although some important issues still remain unsolved (de Vega et al, 2008;Mahon and Caramazza, 2008). One of these issues is the need to determine whether language-induced motor activations are exclusively lexical or are dependent to some extent on the semantic context.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain dynamics in the comprehension of action-related language. A time-frequency analysis of mu rhythms

et al. 2015

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a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oArticle history: Accepted 2 January 2015 Available online 9 January 2015 Keywords:Mu rhythms Beta rhythms Embodied meaning Action language Perceptive language EEG mu rhythms (8-13 Hz) recorded at fronto-central electrodes are generally considered as markers of motor cortical activity in humans, because they are modulated when participants perform an action, when they observe another's action or even when they imagine performing an action. In this study, we analyzed the time-frequency (TF) modulation of mu rhythms while participants read action language ("You will cut the strawberry cake"), abstract language ("You will doubt the patient's argument"), and perceptive language ("You will notice the bright day"). The results indicated that mu suppression at fronto-central sites is associated with action language rather than with abstract or perceptive language. Also, the largest difference between conditions occurred quite late in the sentence, while reading the first noun, (contrast Action vs. Abstract), or the second noun following the action verb (contrast Action vs. Perceptive). This suggests that motor activation is associated with the integration of words across the sentence beyond the lexical processing of the action verb. Source reconstruction localized mu suppression associated with action sentences in premotor cortex (BA 6). The present study suggests (1) that the understanding of action language activates motor networks in the human brain, and (2) that this activation occurs online based on semantic integration across multiple words in the sentence.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain dynamics in the comprehension of action-related language. A time-frequency analysis of mu rhythms

et al. 2015

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“…Rueschemeyer et al (Rueschemeyer et al 2010) state that intentional actions activating the brain resources used for the motor system are also engaged in lexical-semantic processing and language comprehension. Additionally, the motor system is automatically activated under the following three situations: when a person (a) observes manipulable objects; (b) processes action verbs; and (c) observes the actions of another individual (Mahon and Caramazza 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Embodied cognition and language learning in virtual environments

Chen

et al. 2015

Education Tech Research Dev

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“…It would mean that only in the case of a spatially mapped motor response a body rotation is fully simulated (cf. Kessler and Thomson, 2010), while in the case of a verbal response VPT-2 could rely on the transformation of a more abstract “disembodied” (e.g., geometric) representation of the egocentric perspective (e.g., Mahon and Caramazza, 2008). Qualitative differences in spatial representation updating after a physical or an imagined self-rotation have indeed been reported for motor (pointing) vs. verbal (“left”/”right”) responses (de Vega and Rodrigo, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The two forms of visuo-spatial perspective taking are differently embodied and subserve different spatial prepositions

Kessler¹

2010

Front. Psychology

142

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We set out to distinguish level 1 (VPT-1) and level 2 (VPT-2) perspective taking with respect to the embodied nature of the underlying processes as well as to investigate their dependence or independence of response modality (motor vs. verbal). While VPT-1 reflects understanding of what lies within someone else's line of sight, VPT-2 involves mentally adopting someone else's spatial point of view. Perspective taking is a high-level conscious and deliberate mental transformation that is crucially placed at the convergence of perception, mental imagery, communication, and even theory of mind in the case of VPT-2. The differences between VPT-1 and VPT-2 mark a qualitative boundary between humans and apes, with the latter being capable of VPT-1 but not of VPT-2. However, our recent data showed that VPT-2 is best conceptualized as the deliberate simulation or emulation of a movement, thus underpinning its embodied origins. In the work presented here we compared VPT-2 to VPT-1 and found that VPT-1 is not at all, or very differently embodied. In a second experiment we replicated the qualitatively different patterns for VPT-1 and VPT-2 with verbal responses that employed spatial prepositions. We conclude that VPT-1 is the cognitive process that subserves verbal localizations using “in front” and “behind,” while VPT-2 subserves “left” and “right” from a perspective other than the egocentric. We further conclude that both processes are grounded and situated, but only VPT-2 is embodied in the form of a deliberate movement simulation that increases in mental effort with distance and incongruent proprioception. The differences in cognitive effort predict differences in the use of the associated prepositions. Our findings, therefore, shed light on the situated, grounded and embodied basis of spatial localizations and on the psychology of their use.

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A critical look at the embodied cognition hypothesis and a new proposal for grounding conceptual content

Cited by 948 publications

References 46 publications

Brain dynamics in the comprehension of action-related language. A time-frequency analysis of mu rhythms

Brain dynamics in the comprehension of action-related language. A time-frequency analysis of mu rhythms

Embodied cognition and language learning in virtual environments

The two forms of visuo-spatial perspective taking are differently embodied and subserve different spatial prepositions

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