Freie Universität Berlin, Brain Language Laboratory, Department of Philosophy and Humanities, Berlin, Germany; Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Cluster of Excellence Matters of Activity, Image Space Material, Berlin, Germany.
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Cluster of Excellence Matters of Activity, Image Space Material, Berlin, Germany; Charite University Medicine Berlin, Department of Neurosurgery, Berlin, Germany; Einstein Center for Neurosciences Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Neuropsychologia. 2020 Apr;141:107384. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107384. Epub 2020 Feb 14.
This study asks whether lesions in different parts of the brain have different effects on the processing of words typically used to refer to objects with and without action affordances, for example tools and animal-related nouns. A cohort of neurological patients with focal lesions participated in a lexical decision paradigm where nouns semantically related to tools, foods and animals were presented along with matched pseudo-words. Differences in semantic features between the categories were confirmed using extensive semantic ratings whereas all semantic word categories were matched for relevant psycholinguistic variables. In a data-driven region of interest analysis, lesions in dorsal pre- and postcentral grey and white matter areas were associated to specific performance deficits for tool nouns when compared to animal nouns. In contrast, patients with lesions primarily affecting perisylvian inferior-frontal and/or temporal regions presented similar deficits across all semantic word categories tested and likewise a group of age and education matched healthy control participants did not show any category specific differences. These findings falsify brain language models denying the fronto-parietal cortex' role in word recognition and semantic understanding. They are best accounted for by frameworks that acknowledge a role of sensorimotor cortex in the semantic processing of action-related words.
本研究探讨了大脑不同部位的损伤是否会对处理具有和不具有动作功能的物体的典型词汇产生不同的影响，例如工具和与动物相关的名词。一组患有局灶性损伤的神经科患者参与了词汇决策范式，其中呈现了与工具、食物和动物语义相关的名词以及匹配的伪词。通过广泛的语义评分确认了类别之间的语义特征差异，而所有语义词类别都与相关的心理语言学变量相匹配。在数据驱动的感兴趣区域分析中，与动物名词相比，背侧额中和后中央灰质和白质区域的损伤与工具名词的特定表现缺陷相关。相比之下，主要影响额下外侧和/或颞叶区域的患者在所有测试的语义词类别中表现出相似的缺陷，同样，一组年龄和教育相匹配的健康对照组参与者也没有表现出任何特定于类别的差异。这些发现否定了否认额顶叶皮层在单词识别和语义理解中的作用的大脑语言模型。它们最好由承认感觉运动皮层在与动作相关的单词语义处理中的作用的框架来解释。
