Aziz-Zadeh Lisa, Wilson Stephen M, Rizzolatti Giacomo, Iacoboni Marco
Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Via Volturno, 39/E, I-43100 Parma, Italy.
Curr Biol. 2006 Sep 19;16(18):1818-23. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2006.07.060.
The thesis of embodied semantics holds that conceptual representations accessed during linguistic processing are, in part, equivalent to the sensory-motor representations required for the enactment of the concepts described . Here, using fMRI, we tested the hypothesis that areas in human premotor cortex that respond both to the execution and observation of actions-mirror neuron areas -are key neural structures in these processes. Participants observed actions and read phrases relating to foot, hand, or mouth actions. In the premotor cortex of the left hemisphere, a clear congruence was found between effector-specific activations of visually presented actions and of actions described by literal phrases. These results suggest a key role of mirror neuron areas in the re-enactment of sensory-motor representations during conceptual processing of actions invoked by linguistic stimuli.
具身语义学的论点认为，语言处理过程中所涉及的概念表征，部分等同于描述这些概念时所需要的感觉运动表征。在此，我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来检验这样一个假设，即人类运动前区皮层中那些对动作的执行和观察均有反应的区域——镜像神经元区域——是这些过程中的关键神经结构。参与者观察动作，并阅读与足部、手部或口部动作相关的短语。在左半球的运动前区皮层中，视觉呈现动作的特定效应器激活与字面短语所描述动作的特定效应器激活之间存在明显的一致性。这些结果表明，在语言刺激引发的动作概念处理过程中，镜像神经元区域在感觉运动表征的重新激活中起着关键作用。
