Action verbs and the primary motor cortex: A comparative TMS study of silent reading, frequency judgments, and motor imagery

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

“…These findings directly support the notion that understanding congruent action language elicits activation in the premotor cortex (PM). The fact that PM was found in the source reconstruction of both comparisons is in line with previous neuroimaging studies that have consistently shown the involvement of the PM cortex during the processing of action language (Papeo et al, 2009;Pulvermüller et al, 1999;Raposo et al, 2009;Schuil et al, 2013;Tomasino et al, 2008;Willems et al, 2010). In addition, other studies have shown that the dorsal PM is particularly activated during the preparation of movements (Godschalk et al, 1985;Halsband and Freund, 1990;Passingham, 1988), which fits well with the fact that sentences in this study were constructed in future tense (Candidi et al, 2010).…”

“…Another alternative is that the activation of the motor cortex associated with reading is a non-automatic, context-dependent process, involving lexical-semantic integration across the sentence. The latter proposal is based on neuroimaging (Moody and Gennari, 2010;Schuil et al, 2013;Raposo et al, 2009;Urrutia et al, 2012), and brain stimulation studies (Cacciari et al, 2011;Buccino et al, 2005;Tomasino et al, 2008;Papeo et al, 2009). For example, in a fMRI experiment Raposo et al (2009) reported that action verbs activate motor regions when they appear in concrete literal sentences (e.g., kick the ball), whereas the same verbs in idiomatic sentences do not activate motor regions (e.g., kick the bucket).…”

Transcranial magnetic stimulation research on reading and dyslexia: a new clinical intervention technique for treating dyslexia?

“…The authors found that the supramarginal gyrus clearly contributed to reading; moreover, a conclusion was that the supramarginal gyrus automatically computed the sound of a word and that this occurred even when it was not really required to perform the task Nakamura et al [35] In total, 30 healthy, native Japanese speakers Superior temporal gyrus and inferior parietal lobe A clear double dissociation was discovered; the repetition priming during the pronunciation task was eliminated when TMS was conducted on the left inferior parietal lobe, but not when it was conducted on the left superior temporal gyrus, whereas the priming during the lexical decision task was eliminated when the left superior temporal gyrus, but not the left inferior parietal lobe, was stimulated Tomasino et al [36] Twenty right-handed, healthy men, who were all native speakers of German Primary motor-cortex…”

“…These verbs all express some kind of action. Tomasino et al [36] applied TMS to the hand area of the left primary motor cortex during experimental trials of three different tasks (silent reading of action verbs, motor imagery of the action, and frequency judgment) and to the vertex during the control trials of these tasks. The authors found neuroscientific evidence for the hypothesis that the primary motor cortex was critically involved in processing action verbs but that this was only the case when the participants were simulating the corresponding movement.…”

“…The authors found neuroscientific evidence for the hypothesis that the primary motor cortex was critically involved in processing action verbs but that this was only the case when the participants were simulating the corresponding movement. [36] …”