Literal, fictive and metaphorical motion sentences preserve the motion component of the verb: A TMS study

Abstract

Order of Authors: Cristina Cacciari, PhD; Nadia Bolognini, PhD; Irene Senna; Maria Concetta Pellicciari, PhD; Carlo Miniussi, PhD; Costanza Papagno Abstract: We used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to assess whether reading literal, nonliteral (i.e., metaphorical, idiomatic) and fictive motion sentences modulates the activity of the motor system. Sentences were divided into three segments visually presented one at a time: the noun phrase, the verb and the final part of the sentence. Single pulse-TMS was delivered at the end of the sentence over the leg motor area in the left hemisphere and motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded from the right gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior muscles. MEPs were larger when participants were presented with literal, fictive and metaphorical motion sentences than with idiomatic motion or mental sentences. These results suggest that the excitability of the motor system modulated by the motor component of the verb is preserved in fictive and metaphorical motion sentences.Dear Editor, Thank you very much for accepting our manuscript. We have answered all the remaining points raised by Rev #1 and we are attaching in a separate file our responses.We hope that our manuscript is now suitable for publication in Brain and Language Sincerely, Costanza Papagno, PhD, MD Milano, May 9 th 2011 Cover LetterThis study adds evidence in the debate concerning the role of the primary motor cortex in the comprehension of motion verbs, showing that the motor component of the verb is preserved in fictive and metaphorical sentences, while it is not when motion verbs are used in idiomatic contexts. Res.: we have briefly summarized the pilot experiment in which we found MEP activation effects for idiomatic sentences when TMS was delivered immediately after the verb, when the subject was animate. We have added the following paragraph:We performed a previous experiment on eight healthy participants (six females, mean age 29±3 years; mean education 17±1 years; Handedness Inventory test mean score 97.4%) using the same material and procedure, except that TMS was delivered immediately after the second segment, so that participants only read the noun phrase and the (motion or mental) verb before receiving TMS. This means that up to that point participants were unaware of the literal, metaphorical or idiomatic nature of the sentences that only emerged afterwards (with the exception of sentences with an inanimate subject). In this experiment the effect of the sentence type on motor cortical excitability was evaluated using the MEP changes expressed in terms of the ratio (∆) between motion and mental (i.e., control) sentences. A repeated measure ANOVA with Sentence type (literal, fictive, idiomatic or metaphorical motion) as within-subject factor was used. The analysis did not show any significant effect on the GCM muscle [F (3, 21) SummaryWe used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to assess whether reading literal, nonliteral (i.e., metaphorical, idiomatic) and fictive motion sentences modul...

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

“…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). In the same vein, Cacciari et al (2011) employing single-pulse TMS on the left leg-related motor cortex while participants read leg-related action verb embedded in sentences, reported modulations of cortico-spinal excitability only when the action verbs appeared in a literal or metaphorical context, but not when the same verbs appeared in idioms.…”

“…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?

“…was the grammar of the sentence correct or not). Furthermore, when rTMS was conducted on the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the opposite pattern was visible, and the participants needed more time to finish the syntactic task, but did not need more time Manenti et al [39] Twelve right-handed, native Italian speakers Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex A double dissociation between the type of task (semantic vs. syntactic) and the rTMS effects was found, supporting the idea that the underlying working memory resources in sentence comprehension were processed differently by the two hemispheres Cacciari et al [42] Nine healthy participants…”

“…Larger motor-evoked potentials were found when individuals read literal, fictive, and metaphorical motion sentences than when they read idiomatic motion or mental sentences. Cacciari et al [42] found neuroscientific evidence for the hypothesis that the activity of the motor areas was affected by the motor component of the verb when reading fictive and metaphorical motion sentences.…”

“…[39] Processing of specific sentence types So far, we have discussed general sentence comprehension in normal readers. In contrast to Manenti et al, [39] Cacciari et al [42] were interested in how readers process specific kinds of sentences. They investigated three neurolinguistic classes of sentences, "literal", "nonliteral" (i.e.…”