Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2012 Oct;24(10):2108-19. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_00264. Epub 2012 Aug 20.
Embodied theories hold that cognitive concepts are grounded in our sensorimotor systems. Specifically, a number of behavioral and neuroimaging studies have buttressed the idea that language concepts are represented in areas involved in perception and action [Pulvermueller, F. Brain mechanisms linking language and action. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 6, 576-582, 2005; Barsalou, L. W. Perceptual symbol systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 577-660, 1999]. Proponents of a strong embodied account argue that activity in perception/action areas is triggered automatically upon encountering a word and reflect static semantic representations. In contrast to what would be expected if lexical semantic representations are automatically triggered upon encountering a word, a number of studies failed to find motor-related activity for words with a putative action-semantic component [Raposo, A., Moss, H. E., Stamatakis, E. A., & Tyler, L. K. Modulation of motor and premotor cortices by actions, action words and action sentences. Neuropsychologia, 47, 388-396, 2009; Rueschemeyer, S.-A., Brass, M., & Friederici, A. D. Comprehending prehending: Neural correlates of processing verbs with motor stems. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 855-865, 2007]. In a recent fMRI study, Van Dam and colleagues [Van Dam, W. O., Van Dijk, M., Bekkering, H., & Rueschemeyer, S.-A. Flexibility in embodied lexical-semantic representations. Human Brain Mapping, in press] showed that the degree to which a modality-specific region contributes to a representation considerably changes as a function of context. In the current study, we presented words for which both motor and visual properties (e.g., tennis ball, boxing glove) were important in constituting the concept. Our aim was to corroborate on earlier findings of flexible and context-dependent language representations by testing whether functional integration between auditory brain regions and perception/action areas is modulated by context. Functional connectivity was investigated by means of a psychophysiological interaction analysis, in which we found that bilateral superior temporal gyrus was more strongly connected with brain regions relevant for coding action information: (1) for Action Color words vs. Abstract words, and (2) for Action Color words presented in a context that emphasized action vs. a context that emphasized color properties.
具身理论认为，认知概念是建立在我们的感觉运动系统基础上的。具体来说，许多行为和神经影像学研究支持这样一种观点，即语言概念是在涉及感知和行动的区域中表示的[Pulvermueller，F. 语言与行动的大脑机制。自然评论神经科学，6，576-582，2005；Barsalou，LW 感知符号系统。行为与脑科学，22，577-660，1999]。强烈的具身解释的支持者认为，在遇到一个词时，感知/行动区域的活动会自动触发，并反映出静态的语义表示。与如果词汇语义表示在遇到一个词时会自动触发的情况相反，许多研究未能发现具有潜在动作语义成分的词的运动相关活动[Raposo，A.，Moss，HE，Stamatakis，EA，& Tyler，LK 动作、动作词和动作句对运动和运动前皮质的调制。神经心理学，47，388-396，2009；Rueschemeyer，SA，Brass，M.，& Friederici，AD 理解动词的理解：带有运动茎的动词处理的神经相关性。认知神经科学杂志，19，855-865，2007]。在最近的一项 fMRI 研究中，Van Dam 及其同事[Van Dam，WO，Van Dijk，M.，Bekkering，H.，& Rueschemeyer，SA 具身词汇语义表示的灵活性。人类大脑映射，即将出版]表明，特定模态区域对表示的贡献程度会随着上下文的变化而大大改变。在本研究中，我们呈现了一些词，这些词的运动和视觉属性（例如，网球、拳击手套）对于构成概念都很重要。我们的目的是通过测试听觉脑区与感知/行动区之间的功能整合是否受上下文的调节，来证实语言表示具有灵活性和上下文依赖性的早期发现。通过心理生理相互作用分析研究了功能连接，我们发现双侧颞上回与编码动作信息的大脑区域的连接更强：（1）对于动作颜色词与抽象词，以及（2）对于在强调动作的上下文与强调颜色属性的上下文的情况下呈现的动作颜色词。
