Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.
Neuropsychologia. 2013 Nov;51(13):2847-55. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.09.027. Epub 2013 Sep 20.
The present study investigated whether and how beat gesture (small baton-like hand movements used to emphasize information in speech) influences semantic processing as well as its interaction with pitch accent during speech comprehension. Event-related potentials were recorded as participants watched videos of a person gesturing and speaking simultaneously. The critical words in the spoken sentences were accompanied by a beat gesture, a control hand movement, or no hand movement, and were expressed either with or without pitch accent. We found that both beat gesture and control hand movement induced smaller negativities in the N400 time window than when no hand movement was presented. The reduced N400s indicate that both beat gesture and control movement facilitated the semantic integration of the critical word into the sentence context. In addition, the words accompanied by beat gesture elicited smaller negativities in the N400 time window than those accompanied by control hand movement over right posterior electrodes, suggesting that beat gesture has a unique role for enhancing semantic processing during speech comprehension. Finally, no interaction was observed between beat gesture and pitch accent, indicating that they affect semantic processing independently.
本研究旨在探讨节拍手势（用于强调演讲中信息的小型短棒状手部动作）是否以及如何影响语义处理，以及其在言语理解过程中与音高重音的相互作用。参与者观看一个人同时进行手势和演讲的视频时，记录了事件相关电位。口语句子中的关键单词伴随着节拍手势、控制手部动作或没有手部动作出现，并以有或没有音高重音的方式表达。我们发现，与没有手部动作呈现时相比，节拍手势和控制手部动作都会在 N400 时间窗口中引起更小的负性波。较小的 N400 表明，节拍手势和控制运动都有助于将关键单词整合到句子语境中。此外，与控制手部运动相比，伴随节拍手势的单词在右后电极处的 N400 时间窗口中引起更小的负性波，表明节拍手势在言语理解过程中对语义处理具有独特的作用。最后，没有观察到节拍手势和音高重音之间的相互作用，表明它们独立地影响语义处理。
