Röders Dorian, Klepp Anne, Schnitzler Alfons, Biermann-Ruben Katja, Niccolai Valentina
Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine University, 40225 Duesseldorf, Germany.
Neural Basis of Learning Lab, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
Brain Sci. 2022 Apr 6;12(4):481. doi: 10.3390/brainsci12040481.
Grounded cognition theory postulates that cognitive processes related to motor or sensory content are processed by brain networks involved in motor execution and perception, respectively. Processing words with auditory features was shown to activate the auditory cortex. Our study aimed at determining whether onomatopoetic verbs (e.g., "tröpfeln"-to dripple), whose articulation reproduces the sound of respective actions, engage the auditory cortex more than non-onomatopoetic verbs. Alpha and beta brain frequencies as well as evoked-related fields (ERFs) were targeted as potential neurophysiological correlates of this linguistic auditory quality. Twenty participants were measured with magnetoencephalography (MEG) while semantically processing visually presented onomatopoetic and non-onomatopoetic German verbs. While a descriptively stronger left temporal alpha desynchronization for onomatopoetic verbs did not reach statistical significance, a larger ERF for onomatopoetic verbs emerged at about 240 ms in the centro-parietal area. Findings suggest increased cortical activation related to onomatopoeias in linguistically relevant areas.
具身认知理论假定，与运动或感觉内容相关的认知过程分别由参与运动执行和感知的脑网络进行处理。研究表明，处理具有听觉特征的词语会激活听觉皮层。我们的研究旨在确定拟声动词（例如，“tröpfeln”，意为“滴下”），其发音再现了相应动作的声音，是否比非拟声动词更能激活听觉皮层。将阿尔法和贝塔脑电波频率以及事件相关场（ERF）作为这种语言听觉特性的潜在神经生理相关指标。20名参与者在对视觉呈现的德语拟声动词和非拟声动词进行语义处理时，接受了脑磁图（MEG）测量。虽然拟声动词在描述上更强的左颞叶阿尔法去同步化未达到统计学显著性，但在中央顶叶区域，拟声动词在约240毫秒时出现了更大的事件相关场。研究结果表明，在语言相关区域，与拟声词相关的皮层激活增加。
