Brain Activation During Conceptual Processing of Action and Sound Verbs

Abstract

embodied cognition grounded cognition theory action-related concepts sound-related concepts language functional magnetic resonance imaging Grounded cognition approaches to conceptual representations postulate a close link between conceptual knowledge and the sensorimotor brain systems. The present fMRI study tested, whether a feature-specific representation of concepts, as previously demonstrated for nouns, can also be found for action-and sound-related verbs. Participants were presented with action-and soundrelated verbs along with pseudoverbs while performing a lexical decision task. Sound-related verbs activated auditory areas in the temporal cortex, whereas action-related verbs activated brain regions in the superior frontal gyrus and the cerebellum, albeit only at a more liberal threshold. This differential brain activation during conceptual verb processing partially overlapped with or was adjacent to brain regions activated during the functional localizers probing sound perception or action execution. Activity in brain areas involved in the processing of action information was parametrically modulated by ratings of action relevance. Comparisons of action-and sound-related verbs with pseudoverbs revealed activation for both verb categories in auditory and motor areas. In contrast to proposals of strong grounded cognition approaches, our study did not demonstrate a considerable overlap of activations for action-and sound-related verbs and for the corresponding functional localizer tasks. However, in line with weaker variants of grounded cognition theories, the differential activation pattern for action-and sound-related verbs was near corresponding sensorimotor brain regions depending on conceptual feature relevance. Possibly, action-sound coupling resulted in a mutual activation of the motor and the auditory system for both action-and sound-related verbs, thereby reducing the effect sizes for the differential contrasts.

Аффордансы Как Часть Процесса Идентификации Объекта В Зрительном Поиске

“…This assumption is based on the fact that in most works in this area, the compatibility effect was studied using the example of the problem of assigning an object to one category or another (Tucker and Ellis, 2001et al, 2007, Bub et al, 2013. The results of the studies mentioned in the theoretical review are generally consistent with studies that used the fMRI method : upon presentation of images or words, activation of motor zones was observed if the given stimulus was an object with which action was possible (for example, a hammer); significant activation occurred upon presentation of stimuli denoting movement (verbs) (Popp, et al, 2019). It can be said that the task of assigning an object to one category or another is closer to the experimental conditions of studies using fMRI than the task presented in this study.…”

Motor features of abstract verbs determine their representations in the motor system

“…Importantly, the ACE is an embodied effect that primarily indicates the functional role of the motor system in language comprehension and concept processing (Klepp et al, 2019;Morey et al, 2021). Using such an appropriate index to detect motor representations of abstract concepts, our results provide behavioral evidence for modality-specific representations (representations within modality-specific systems for perception, action, and emotion) of motor features of abstract verbs, similar to neuroimaging studies on concrete words (e.g., Hauk et al, 2004;Popp et al, 2019;Kuhnke et al, 2020). Thus, the degree of involvement of the motor system in the processing of abstract words may vary according to their dominant features of the abstract word.…”

“…Thus, the degree of involvement of the motor system in the processing of abstract words may vary according to their dominant features of the abstract word. Recent studies have shown that conceptual processing involves both modality-specific sensorimotor areas and higher-level multimodal regions ( Fernandino et al, 2016 ; Popp et al, 2019 ; Harpaintner et al, 2020 ; Kuhnke et al, 2020 ). Further research is required to provide neural evidence of the causal links between the dominant features in abstract concepts and their representations in modality-specific and multimodal regions.…”

Task-Dependent Functional and Effective Connectivity during Conceptual Processing

“…Crucially, this hierarchical system is flexible, with different regions being recruited dynamically depending on the task ( Hoenig et al. 2008 ; Kemmerer 2015 ; Popp et al. 2019b ).…”