Functional MRI of conventional and anomalous metaphors in Mandarin Chinese

Language Processing, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of

“…Mashal et al (2005) found that the right posterior MTG was involved in novel metaphor comprehension. Direct comparison showed that novel metaphors elicited stronger bilateral activations that included effects in the right frontal regions (Ahrens et al, 2007;Mashal et al, 2007) and the temporal regions (Mashal et al, 2007). Other differences have been found between novel and conventional metaphor comprehension.…”

Hemispheric differences in figurative language processing: Contributions of neuroimaging methods and challenges in reconciling current empirical findings

“…Thus, using advanced imaging techniques such as PET, fMRI and TMS have revealed some key regions of brain activation during the processing of idioms and metaphors compared to literal language, and these findings have moved the discussion beyond the basic left versus right hemisphere dichotomy to a more refined understanding of different neural networks underlying the comprehension of figurative expressions. Overall, studies have shown increased activation for figurative expressions in certain RH areas: right frontal and temporal areas such as the prefrontal cortex (Bottini et al, 1994), middle temporal gyrus (Bottini et al, 1994;Proverbio et al, 2009;Sotillo et al, 2005), precuneus (Bottini et al, 1994) and superior temporal gyrus (Ahrens et al, 2007;Sotillo et al, 2005). Metaphors have also been shown to activate the right medial frontal gyrus (Proverbio et al, 2009;Schmidt & Seger, 2009).…”

“…Particularly for unfamiliar/novel metaphors, studies have revealed activation in the right insula (Mashal et al, 2005;Schmidt & Seger, 2009), the right IFG (Ahrens et al, 2007;Mashal et al, 2007;Schmidt & Seger, 2009) and the right PSTS Pobric et al, 2008). In the LH, key areas of activation for metaphoric language include the left IFG, particularly for familiar metaphors (Ahrens et al, 2007;Eviatar & Just, 2006;Mashal et al, 2007;Proverbio et al, 2009;Stringaris et al, 2007) and the medial frontal gyrus . The left precentral gyrus and the left inferior parietal lobe have also been implicated in metaphor comprehension (Stringaris et al, 2007).…”

Cognitive and neural foundations of religious belief

“…Statements reflecting doctrine (ϩD3) engaged the R ITG, a key area in decoding metaphorical meaning (38) and abstractness (39). It also engaged the L superior temporal gyrus, BA 22, an area known to process abstract linguistic content less amenable to imagery (36).…”