Stimulus properties matter more than perspective: An fMRI study of mental imagery and silent reading of action phrases

Tomasino, Barbara; Werner, Cornelius J.; Weiss, Peter H.; Fink, Gereon R.

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.03.035

Cited by 109 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…There was no LD man > nonman effect in the BA 4 ROIs from the LD run, t(19) < 1, and a marginally significant negative effect for IM man > nonman , t(19) = −1.89, p = .073. This is in line with previous studies showing premotor but not primary motor activation during action language understanding (Tomasino, Werner, Weiss, & Fink, 2007;Tettamanti et al, 2005).…”

Section: Subject-specific Regions Of Interest Analysissupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Consistent with these proposals, we find effector-specific activation during LD in premotor cortex but not primary motor cortex (see also Aziz-Zadeh et al, 2006;Tettamanti et al, 2005; but see Pulvermuller, 2005). By contrast, we find effector-specific activation during imagery in both premotor and primary motor cortices (Tomasino, Fink, Sparing, Dafotakis, & Weiss, 2008;Tomasino et al, 2007; see also Papeo, Vallesi, Isaja, & Rumiati, 2009). 4 The proposal that simulation and imagery are partially distinct processes with different computational goals predicts a dissociation in the motor system, and it is the only proposal we are aware of that can predict the double dissociation we observe in premotor cortex.…”

Section: Possible Relationships Between Simulation and Imagerysupporting

confidence: 83%

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Neural Dissociations between Action Verb Understanding and Motor Imagery

Willems

Toni

Hagoort

et al. 2010

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

149

142

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Abstract■ According to embodied theories of language, people understand a verb like throw, at least in part, by mentally simulating throwing. This implicit simulation is often assumed to be similar or identical to motor imagery. Here we used fMRI to test whether implicit simulations of actions during language understanding involve the same cortical motor regions as explicit motor imagery. Healthy participants were presented with verbs related to hand actions (e.g., to throw) and nonmanual actions (e.g., to kneel ). They either read these verbs (lexical decision task) or actively imagined performing the actions named by the verbs (imagery task). Primary motor cortex showed effector-specific activation during imagery, but not during lexical decision. Parts of premotor cortex distinguished manual from nonmanual actions during both lexical decision and imagery, but there was no overlap or correlation between regions activated during the two tasks. These dissociations suggest that implicit simulation and explicit imagery cued by action verbs may involve different types of motor representations and that the construct of "mental simulation" should be distinguished from "mental imagery" in embodied theories of language. ■

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Section: Subject-specific Regions Of Interest Analysissupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Possible Relationships Between Simulation and Imagerysupporting

confidence: 83%

Neural Dissociations between Action Verb Understanding and Motor Imagery

Willems

Toni

Hagoort

et al. 2010

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

149

142

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Recent research by Tomasino et al (2007) found that neural activation of M1 during mental imagery of action phrases during silent reading was not influenced by perspective, but was solely mediated by the motority of the action phrase. Nonetheless, from a Gibsonian affordances and the embodied cognition perspective, it is more logical that motor imagery is done from a first-person perspective (e.g., seeing yourself using a wrench) as this is more likely to also involve kinaesthetic imagery.…”

Section: Proposed Solutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motor imagery and higher-level cognition: four hurdles before research can sprint forward

Madan

Singhal

2012

Cogn Process

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“…This effect is so great that the type of language that is 'experienced' (action words, physical objects, abstractions etc.) probably has a more significant effect on brain activity than the mode, or channel, through which it is experienced (Tomasino et al, 2007). Action-perception loops appear to be involved in all languaging processes.…”

Section: Developments In the Understanding Of Neurophysiological Procmentioning

confidence: 99%

What’s the point? The role of punctuation in realising information structure in written English

Moore

2016

Functional Linguist.

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The main claim of this paper is that punctuation marks, in conjunction with spaces between words, function to provide visual rather than auditory cues for information structure in written English. INFORMATION STRUCTURE is defined here as dividing the flow of discourse into units, each containing a newsworthy element, and in contrast to the Systemic Functional systems of REFERENCE and THEME. A model of how these three systems interact is further supported by evidence from the historical development of reading and modern studies of the process of fluent silent reading. Reading silently does not require physical articulation and so written text is constrained by the saccading eye rather than the need to draw breath. The silent reader uses punctuation marks as a guide in a saccade to focus on the end of a clause which provides a non-arbitrary location for New information.Keywords: Punctuation, Information structure, Theme, Reference, Systemic Functional Linguistics, Embodiment Introduction Punctuation has vexed many writers past and present (e.g. Lowth, 1762;Truss, 2003). Surveys of the development of punctuation (e.g. Baron, 2001;Bruthiaux, 1993) reveal the longstanding divide between those that prescribe punctuation by prosodic principle and those that promote punctuation as the route to clarifying grammatical structure. This paper attempts to find a path through this apparent impasse by proposing not only that prosody and punctuation both realise the same function -that of information structure -but that they do so in a natural relationship to the spoken and written modes of language, respectively.The following section appraises a range of opinions on the topic of punctuation to reveal the contrast between punctuation by prosody and punctuation by grammar in written English. The next section examines the function and realisation of INFORMATION STRUCTURE within Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), contrasting it with the systems of REFERENCE and THEME, and culminating in a model of how the three systems contribute to written text. The paper then attempts to provide explanations for the difference in the realisation of INFORMATION STRUCTURE between spoken and written English, investigating firstly important steps in the historical development of written English, and then examining current understanding of the process of silent reading. The discussion aims to reveal how texts

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Stimulus properties matter more than perspective: An fMRI study of mental imagery and silent reading of action phrases

Cited by 109 publications

References 66 publications

Neural Dissociations between Action Verb Understanding and Motor Imagery

Neural Dissociations between Action Verb Understanding and Motor Imagery

Motor imagery and higher-level cognition: four hurdles before research can sprint forward

What’s the point? The role of punctuation in realising information structure in written English

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