Rapp Alexander M, Leube Dirk T, Erb Michael, Grodd Wolfgang, Kircher Tilo T J
Department of Psychiatry, University of Tuebingen, Osianderstrasse 24, D-72076 Tuebingen, Germany.
Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 2004 Aug;20(3):395-402. doi: 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.03.017.
Metaphoric language is used to express meaning that is otherwise difficult to conceptualize elegantly. Beyond semantic analysis, understanding the figurative meaning of a metaphor requires mental linkage of different category domains normally not related to each other. We investigated processing of metaphoric sentences using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Stimuli consisted of 60 novel short German sentence pairs with either metaphoric or literal meaning. The pairs differed only in their last one to three words and were matched for syntax structure, word frequency, connotation and tense. Fifteen healthy subjects (six female, nine male, 19-51 years) read these sentences silently and judged by pressing one of two buttons whether they had a positive or negative connotation. Reading metaphors in contrast to literal sentences revealed signal changes in the left lateral inferior frontal (BA 45/47), inferior temporal (BA 20) and posterior middle/inferior temporal (BA 37) gyri. The activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus may reflect semantic inferencing processes during the understanding of a metaphor. This is in line with the results from other functional imaging studies showing an involvement of the left inferior frontal gyrus in integrating word and sentence meanings. Previous results of a right hemispheric involvement in metaphor processing might reflect understanding of complex sentences.
隐喻性语言用于表达那些否则难以优雅地概念化的意义。除了语义分析之外，理解隐喻的比喻意义需要在通常彼此不相关的不同类别领域之间建立心理联系。我们使用事件相关功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究了隐喻句子的处理过程。刺激材料由60对新颖的简短德语句子组成，这些句子具有隐喻意义或字面意义。这些句子对仅在最后一到三个单词上有所不同，并且在句法结构、词频、内涵和时态方面相互匹配。15名健康受试者（6名女性，9名男性，年龄在19至51岁之间）默读这些句子，并通过按下两个按钮之一来判断它们具有积极还是消极的内涵。与字面句子相比，阅读隐喻句子时，左侧额下回（BA 45/47）、颞下回（BA 20）以及颞中/颞下后部（BA 37）脑回出现了信号变化。左侧额下回的激活可能反映了在理解隐喻过程中的语义推理过程。这与其他功能成像研究的结果一致，这些研究表明左侧额下回参与了单词和句子意义的整合。先前关于右半球参与隐喻处理的结果可能反映了对复杂句子的理解。
