Center for Advanced Brain Imaging, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Brain Lang. 2014 Jan;128(1):18-24. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2013.11.002. Epub 2013 Dec 15.
Non-arbitrary correspondences between spoken words and categories of meanings exist in natural language, with mounting evidence that listeners are sensitive to this sound symbolic information. Native English speakers were asked to choose the meaning of spoken foreign words from one of four corresponding antonym pairs selected from a previously developed multi-language stimulus set containing both sound symbolic and non-symbolic stimuli. In behavioral (n=9) and fMRI (n=15) experiments, participants showed reliable sensitivity to the sound symbolic properties of the stimulus set, selecting the consistent meaning for the sound symbolic words at above chances rates. There was increased activation for sound symbolic relative to non-symbolic words in left superior parietal cortex, and a cluster in left superior longitudinal fasciculus showed a positive correlation between fractional anisotropy (FA) and an individual's sensitivity to sound symbolism. These findings support the idea that crossmodal correspondences underlie sound symbolism in spoken language.
在自然语言中，口语单词和意义类别之间存在非任意的对应关系，越来越多的证据表明，听者对这种声音象征信息很敏感。研究人员要求以英语为母语的人从之前开发的多语言刺激集中选择四个对应的反义词对之一，该刺激集包含声音象征和非象征刺激，从而为听到的外语单词选择含义。在行为（n=9）和 fMRI（n=15）实验中，参与者对刺激集的声音象征特性表现出可靠的敏感性，以高于机会的比率选择了声音象征词的一致含义。与非象征性单词相比，左顶叶上回的激活增加，左额上纵束中的一个簇显示出各向异性分数（FA）与个体对声音象征的敏感性之间的正相关。这些发现支持了一个观点，即跨模态对应是口语中声音象征的基础。
