Marino Barbara F, Borghi Anna M, Buccino Giovanni, Riggio Lucia
Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Milano-Bicocca Milano, Italy.
Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di BolognaBologna, Italy; National Research Council (CNR), Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della CognizioneRome, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2017 Feb 20;8:199. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00199. eCollection 2017.
Two experiments were carried out to investigate whether and how one important characteristic of the motor system, that is its goal-directed organization in motor chains, is reflected in language processing. This possibility stems from the embodied theory of language, according to which the linguistic system re-uses the structures of the motor system. The participants were presented with nouns of common tools preceded by a pair of verbs expressing grasping or observational motor chains (i.e., grasp-to-move, grasp-to-use, look-at-to-grasp, and look-at-to-stare). They decided whether the tool mentioned in the sentence was the same as that displayed in a picture presented shortly after. A primacy of the grasp-to-use motor chain over the other motor chains in priming the participants' performance was observed in both the experiments. More interestingly, we found that the motor information evoked by the noun was modulated by the specific motor-chain expressed by the preceding verbs. Specifically, with the grasping chain aimed at using the tool, the functional motor information prevailed over the volumetric information, and with the grasping chain aimed at moving the tool (Experiment 2). Instead, the functional and volumetric information were balanced for those motor chains that comprise at least an observational act (Experiment 1). Overall our results are in keeping with the embodied theory of language and suggest that understanding sentences expressing an action directed toward a tool drives a chained activation of the motor system.
进行了两项实验，以研究运动系统的一个重要特征，即其在运动链中的目标导向组织，是否以及如何在语言处理中得到体现。这种可能性源于语言的具身理论，根据该理论，语言系统重新利用了运动系统的结构。向参与者呈现常见工具的名词，并在其之前给出一对表达抓握或观察性运动链的动词（即抓握-移动、抓握-使用、看-抓握和看-凝视）。他们要判断句子中提到的工具是否与紧接着呈现的图片中的工具相同。在两项实验中均观察到，在启动参与者的表现方面，抓握-使用运动链比其他运动链具有优先性。更有趣的是，我们发现名词引发的运动信息受到前面动词所表达的特定运动链的调节。具体而言，当抓握链旨在使用工具时，功能性运动信息比体积信息占优势，而当抓握链旨在移动工具时也是如此（实验2）。相反，对于那些至少包含一个观察动作的运动链，功能性和体积信息是平衡的（实验1）。总体而言，我们的结果与语言的具身理论一致，并表明理解表达针对工具的动作的句子会驱动运动系统的链式激活。
