Yang Jie
Department of Neurology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92614, USA,
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2014 Sep;14(3):912-22. doi: 10.3758/s13415-014-0258-y.
The contribution of the sensory-motor system to the semantic processing of language stimuli is still controversial. To address the issue, the present article focuses on the impact of motor contexts (i.e., comprehenders' motor behaviors, motor-training experiences, and motor expertise) on the semantic processing of action-related language and reviews the relevant behavioral and neuroimaging findings. The existing evidence shows that although motor contexts can influence the semantic processing of action-related concepts, the mechanism of the contextual influences is still far from clear. Future investigations will be needed to clarify (1) whether motor contexts only modulate activity in motor regions, (2) whether the contextual influences are specific to the semantic features of language stimuli, and (3) what factors can determine the facilitatory or inhibitory contextual influences on the semantic processing of action-related language.
感觉运动系统对语言刺激语义加工的贡献仍存在争议。为解决这一问题，本文聚焦于运动情境（即理解者的运动行为、运动训练经历和运动专业知识）对与动作相关语言语义加工的影响，并综述相关行为学和神经影像学研究结果。现有证据表明，尽管运动情境能够影响与动作相关概念的语义加工，但情境影响的机制仍远未明确。未来的研究需要阐明：（1）运动情境是否仅调节运动区域的活动；（2）情境影响是否特定于语言刺激的语义特征；（3）哪些因素能够决定运动情境对与动作相关语言语义加工的促进或抑制作用。
