How the motor system handles nouns: a behavioral study

Abstract

It is an open question whether the motor system is involved during understanding of concrete nouns, as it is for concrete verbs. To clarify this issue, we carried out a behavioral experiment using a go-no go paradigm with an early and delayed go-signal delivery. Italian nouns referring to concrete objects (hand-related or foot-related) and abstract entities served as stimuli. Right-handed participants read the stimuli and responded when the presented word was concrete using the left or right hand. At the early go-signal, slower right-hand responses were found for hand-related nouns compared to foot-related nouns. The opposite pattern was found for the left hand. These findings demonstrate an early lateralized modulation of the motor system during noun processing, most likely crucial for noun comprehension.

Automatic ultrarapid activation and inhibition of cortical motor systems in spoken word comprehension

“…This implies similar modality-grounded mechanisms of lexicosemantic representation formation operating in the human brain for different lexical classes. This result is in line with a recent fMRI study comparing English action nouns and verbs, which used additional words for lexical disambiguation (28), as well as with recent behavioral and TMS results indicating motor cortex role in noun processing (27,35). Importantly, while fMRI and behavioral approaches lack the temporal resolution to address the timing of motor cortex involvement, the current MEG study shows its near-instant character.…”

Fine tuned modulation of the motor system by adjectives expressing positive and negative properties

“…Although only statistically significant in the first two blocks, the modulation that positive adjectives exert on the motor system, overlaps that found in previous studies, where verbs and nouns were used. Note that in the studies carried out so far only verbs (e.g., to draw) and nouns (e.g., pencil) that normally recruit a grasping, rather than an avoidance action, were included (Boulenger et al, 2006;Buccino et al, 2005;Dalla Volta et al, 2009;Marino et al, 2013;Sato et al, 2008). In our opinion, the most likely explanation for this lack of significance overall in the case of positive adjectives is that the two adjective categories used here (positive and negative) differ in terms of relevance for individuals.…”

“…It is worth stressing that previous studies only considered language material (verbs and nouns) referring to grasping actions and not to release or avoidance. Indeed if we present participants with a noun like pencil (see Marino et al, 2013), we afford a grasping action rather than an avoidance action. Similarly if we present participants with a verb like to draw (see Sato et al, 2008) we recruit again a grasping action rather than an avoidance action.…”

“…This recruitment occurs 150-170 ms after stimuli presentation (for review see Pulvermül-ler, Shtyrov, & Hauk, 2009). Behavioral studies, where nouns and verbs were used as grammatical categories, have shown that when participants are required to perform a linguistic task at an early time point (150-170 ms) after verbs or nouns presentation, slower motor responses are recorded from the effector (the hand, for example) involved in the actual execution of the action expressed by the verb or in the actual use of the object expressed by the noun (Pulvermüller, Härle, & Hummel, 2001;Boulenger et al, 2006;Buccino et al, 2005;Sato, Mengarelli, Riggio, Gallese, & Buccino, 2008;Dalla Volta, Gianelli, Campione, & Gentilucci, 2009;Marino, Gough, Gallese, Riggio, & Buccino, 2013;De Vega, Moreno, & Castillo, 2013). In addition a TMS study has shown a modulation of MEPs recorded from a muscle of a given effector (e.g., the hand) associated with the verb presented, when the pulse is applied after the stem of the verb (Buccino et al, 2005).…”

Contributions to a neurophysiology of meaning: The interpretation of written messages could be an automatic stimulus-reaction mechanism before becoming conscious processing of information

“…In particular, the hypotheses based on the mirror neurons discovery have been refined, for example through the concepts of Mirroring mechanisms (MM) and Embodied simulation (ES) (Gallese, 2005(Gallese, , 2006(Gallese, , 2007(Gallese, , 2008(Gallese, , 2009aGallese et al, 2009;Gallese & Sinigaglia, 2011a;Ferri, Gallese & Costantini, 2011;Marino et al, 2011;Gallese & Sinigaglia, 2012;Ferrari & Rizzolatti, 2014;Gallese, 2014). About this ongoing dispute, a summary and a state-of-the-art outline can be found in Zipoli Caiani, 2013;apart Contributions to a NEUROPHYSIOLOGY of MEANING the most interesting documents is a forum inside which the most delicate and controversial questions are widely debated.…”