An ALE meta-analytical review of the neural correlates of abstract and concrete words

Bucur, Madalina; Papagno, Costanza

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-94506-9

Cited by 29 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 99 publications

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“…The abstract > concrete comparison showed activation of the IFG and the middle temporal gyrus. These activations largely overlap with those found by previous meta-analyses [ 57 , 62 , 117 , 133 ]. The activation of the IFG has been related to verbally mediated semantic knowledge processing [ 134 , 135 ].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Evidence for the Concreteness of Abstract Language: A Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies

et al. 2021

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The neural mechanisms subserving the processing of abstract concepts remain largely debated. Even within the embodiment theoretical framework, most authors suggest that abstract concepts are coded in a linguistic propositional format, although they do not completely deny the role of sensorimotor and emotional experiences in coding it. To our knowledge, only one recent proposal puts forward that the processing of concrete and abstract concepts relies on the same mechanisms, with the only difference being in the complexity of the underlying experiences. In this paper, we performed a meta-analysis using the Activation Likelihood Estimates (ALE) method on 33 functional neuroimaging studies that considered activations related to abstract and concrete concepts. The results suggest that (1) concrete and abstract concepts share the recruitment of the temporo-fronto-parietal circuits normally involved in the interactions with the physical world, (2) processing concrete concepts recruits fronto-parietal areas better than abstract concepts, and (3) abstract concepts recruit Broca’s region more strongly than concrete ones. Based on anatomical and physiological evidence, Broca’s region is not only a linguistic region mainly devoted to speech production, but it is endowed with complex motor representations of different biological effectors. Hence, we propose that the stronger recruitment of this region for abstract concepts is expression of the complex sensorimotor experiences underlying it, rather than evidence of a purely linguistic format of its processing.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Evidence for the Concreteness of Abstract Language: A Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies

et al. 2021

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“…Consistent with this account, we observed a positive response to more sensory-motor language content in posterior occipitotemporal regions during both language tasks. Previous meta-analyses have identified greater activation to more abstract word comprehension in left lateral temporal (particularly anterior) regions and the left IFG (Bucur & Papagno, 2021;J. Wang et al, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…For instance, theories of concreteness effects state that abstract words are harder to comprehend than concrete words because they are associated with more possible contexts (Schwanenflugel & Shoben, 1983). The additional processing demands associated with selecting an appropriate contextual interpretation has been proposed as an explanation for higher activation in prefrontal cortex for more abstract words (Bucur & Papagno, 2021;Hoffman, Binney, et al, 2015;J. Wang et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modulation of brain activity by psycholinguistic information during naturalistic speech comprehension and production

Morales

Patel

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Language processing requires the integration of diverse sources of information across multiple levels of processing. A range of psycholinguistic properties have been documented in previous studies as having influence on brain activation during language processing. However, most of those studies have used factorial designs to probe the effect of one or two individual properties using highly controlled stimuli and experimental paradigms. Little is known about the neural correlates of psycholinguistic properties in more naturalistic discourse, especially during language production. The aim of our study is to explore the above issues in a rich fMRI dataset in which participants both listened to recorded passages of discourse and produced their own narrative discourse in response to prompts. Specifically, we measured 13 psycholinguistic properties of the discourse comprehended or produced by the participants, and we used principal components analysis (PCA) to address covariation in these properties and extract a smaller set of latent language characteristics. These latent components indexed vocabulary complexity, sensory-motor and emotional language content, discourse coherence and speech quantity. A parametric approach was adopted to study the effects of these psycholinguistic variables on brain activation during comprehension and production. We found that the pattern of effects across the cortex was somewhat convergent across comprehension and production. However, the degree of convergence varied across language properties, being strongest for the component indexing sensory-motor language content. We report the full, unthresholded effect maps for each psycholinguistic variable, as well as mapping how these effects change along a large-scale cortical gradient of brain function. We believe that our findings provide a valuable starting point for future, confirmatory studies of discourse processing.

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“…This reflects the fact that motion verbs are easier to visualize than static verbs. Importantly, neuroimaging meta-analyses indicate that activation differences between concrete and abstract concepts are not typically observed in LOTC (Bucur & Papagno, 2021; Wang et al, 2010). Thus effects observed in this study are unlikely to be due to the concreteness difference between motion and static events.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representation of motion concepts in occipitotemporal cortex: fMRI activation, decoding and connectivity analyses

Zhang

Lemarchand

Asyraff

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Embodied theories of semantic cognition predict that brain regions involved in motion perception are engaged when people comprehend motion concepts expressed in language. Left lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) is implicated in both motion perception and motion concept processing but prior studies have produced mixed findings regarding which parts of this region are engaged by motion language. We scanned participants performing semantic judgements about sentences describing motion events and static events. We performed univariate analyses, multivariate pattern analyses (MVPA) and psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses to investigate the effect of motion on activity and connectivity in different parts of LOTC. In multivariate analyses that decoded whether a sentence described motion or not, the whole of LOTC showed above-chance level performance, with performance exceeding that of other brain regions. Univariate ROI analyses found that the middle part of LOTC was more active for motion events than static ones. Finally, PPI analyses found that when processing motion events, the middle and posterior parts of LOTC, overlapping with motion perception regions, increased their connectivity with cognitive control regions. Taken together, these results indicate that the whole of the LOTC responds differently to motion vs. static event descriptions, and that these effects are most pronounced in more posterior sites. These findings are consistent with embodiment accounts of semantic processing, and suggest that understanding verbal descriptions of motion engages areas of the occipitotemporal cortex involved in perceiving motion.

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An ALE meta-analytical review of the neural correlates of abstract and concrete words

Cited by 29 publications

References 99 publications

Evidence for the Concreteness of Abstract Language: A Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies

Evidence for the Concreteness of Abstract Language: A Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies

Modulation of brain activity by psycholinguistic information during naturalistic speech comprehension and production

Representation of motion concepts in occipitotemporal cortex: fMRI activation, decoding and connectivity analyses

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