Adjectives Modulate Sensorimotor Activation Driven by Nouns

Abstract

We performed three experiments to investigate whether adjectives can modulate the sensorimotor activation elicited by nouns. In Experiment 1, nouns of graspable objects were used as stimuli. Participants had to decide if each noun referred to a natural or artifact, by performing either a precision or a power reach‐to‐grasp movement. Response grasp could be compatible or incompatible with the grasp typically used to manipulate the objects to which the nouns referred. The results revealed faster reaction times (RTs) in compatible than in incompatible trials. In Experiment 2, the nouns were combined with adjectives expressing either disadvantageous information about object graspability (e.g., sharp) or information about object color (e.g., reddish). No difference in RTs between compatible and incompatible conditions was found when disadvantageous adjectives were used. Conversely, a compatibility effect occurred when color adjectives were combined with nouns referring to natural objects. Finally, in Experiment 3 the nouns were combined with adjectives expressing tactile or shape proprieties of the objects (e.g., long or smooth). Results revealed faster RTs in compatible than in incompatible condition for both noun categories. Taken together, our findings suggest that adjectives can shape the sensorimotor activation elicited by nouns of graspable objects, highlighting that language simulation goes beyond the single‐word level.

What matters is the underlying experience: Similar motor responses during processing observed hand actions and hand‐related verbs

“…Consider, for example, the verb “to grasp” that can be performed in different ways, but when it is depicted in a photo or presented in a specific context, all these potential possibilities are disentangled. In the same line, the noun of an object seems to evoke solely the prototypical motor program related to that object, possibly linked to its stable affordances, like most typical shape and size (Borghi & Riggio, 2009, 2015; Garofalo, Marino, Bellelli, & Riggio, 2021; Gough, Campione, & Buccino, 2013). This motor prototype is learned by experience, encoded in language, and re‐enacted during language processing.…”

Evidence for the Concreteness of Abstract Language: A Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies

“…The embodied approach to language claims that the same neural structures involved in making sensory, motor, and even emotional experiences are also involved in understanding the linguistic material related to those experiences [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. At least for language-expressing concrete content, such as nouns of graspable objects or action verbs, several experimental findings have supported this theoretical framework [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ], for a review see [ 6 , 33 ] However, the embodiment provides less straightforward results in the domain of abstract concepts. Indeed, by definition, abstract concepts are far from actual experiences, so they can appear to be hardly rooted in the neural substrates subserving those experiences.…”

Hand constraint reduces brain activity and affects the speed of verbal responses on semantic tasks

“…The motor-evoked potential in the hand observed when a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pulse was administered to the primary motor cortex was affected by the visual presentation of an adjective indicating that hand grasping is dangerous 74 , such as "sharp." When making judgments whether a visually presented noun referred to a natural or artificial object with either a precision or a power reach-to-grasp movement, adjectives that denoted decreased object graspability, such as "sharp," attached to the nouns, slowed RT 75 . In addition, RT to pictures of plants, animals, and artifacts, or words that represented them, were slower when the pictures or words implied that grasping them was dangerous 76 – 78 .…”