Neural bases of action abstraction

Quandt, Lorna C.; Lee, Yune-Sang; Chatterjee, Anjan

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.09.015

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…The task thus induced the participants to understand the actions, while minimizing the possibility of additional cognitive processes that might be different between the actions but similar across sessions. For example, tasks that require judgments about the actions along certain dimensions such as action familiarity 54 might lead to differential neural activity related to the preparation of different responses, which could be decodable across stimulus type. Participants could respond either during the video/sentence or during the fixation phase after the video/sentence.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinct roles of temporal and frontoparietal cortex in representing actions across vision and language

Wurm

Caramazza

2019

Nat Commun

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Both temporal and frontoparietal brain areas are associated with the representation of knowledge about the world, in particular about actions. However, what these brain regions represent and precisely how they differ remains unknown. Here, we reveal distinct functional profiles of lateral temporal and frontoparietal cortex using fMRI-based MVPA. Frontoparietal areas encode representations of observed actions and corresponding written sentences in an overlapping way, but these representations do not generalize across stimulus type. By contrast, only left lateral posterior temporal cortex (LPTC) encodes action representations that generalize across observed action scenes and written descriptions. The representational organization of stimulus-general action information in LPTC can be predicted from models that describe basic agent-patient relations (object- and person-directedness) and the general semantic similarity between actions. Our results suggest that LPTC encodes general, conceptual aspects of actions whereas frontoparietal representations appear to be tied to specific stimulus types.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinct roles of temporal and frontoparietal cortex in representing actions across vision and language

Wurm

Caramazza

2019

Nat Commun

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“…Other results speak in favour of a role for modality unspecific areas far from perceptual or motor regions, which seems consistent with a role of neural convergence between areas [ 66 – 68 ]. Likewise, neural activity indexing semantic similarity between words and concepts has been reported in both modality-general and modality-preferential sensorimotor systems [ 69 – 72 ]. As the grounding model, but not the adjacent convergence proposal, captures both types of results, it tends to provide the better fit.…”

Section: Evidence and Outlookmentioning

confidence: 99%

The case of CAUSE: neurobiological mechanisms for grounding an abstract concept

Pulvermüller

2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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How can we understand causal relationships and how can we understand words such as ‘cause’? Some theorists assume that the underlying abstract concept is given to us, and that perceptual correlation provides the relevant hints towards inferring causation from perceived real-life events. A different approach emphasizes the role of actions and their typical consequences for the emergence of the concept of causation and the application of the related term. A model of causation is proposed that highlights the family resemblance between causal actions and postulates that symbols are necessary for binding together the different partially shared semantic features of subsets of causal actions and their goals. Linguistic symbols are proposed to play a key role in binding the different subsets of semantic features of the abstract concept. The model is spelt out at the neuromechanistic level of distributed cortical circuits and the cognitive functions they carry. The model is discussed in light of behavioural and neuroscience evidence, and questions for future research are highlighted. In sum, taking causation as a concrete example, I argue that abstract concepts and words can be learnt and grounded in real-life interaction, and that the neurobiological mechanisms realizing such abstract semantic grounding are within our grasp.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use and representation in the brain'.

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“…Research on the nature of representations of space in language, schemas (of which the diagrams here are one type), and images shows a common representation of spatial direction in the parietal lobe—a region of the brain thought to compute spatial directions from a Relative perspective (Weisberg et al 2018b ). This domain-specificity for neural computations has also been found across modalities, with distinct regions of the brain coding for actions and spatial prepositions (Amorapanth et al 2012 ; Quandt et al 2017 ). Generally, the way the brain seems to solve the cross-modality problem is by converting information into a common code for a particular domain.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Reference frames in spatial communication for navigation and sports: an empirical study in ultimate frisbee players

Weisberg

Chatterjee

2020

Cogn. Research

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Background Reference frames ground spatial communication by mapping ambiguous language (for example, navigation: “to the left”) to properties of the speaker (using a Relative reference frame: “to my left”) or the world (Absolute reference frame: “to the north”). People’s preferences for reference frame vary depending on factors like their culture, the specific task in which they are engaged, and differences among individuals. Although most people are proficient with both reference frames, it is unknown whether preference for reference frames is stable within people or varies based on the specific spatial domain. These alternatives are difficult to adjudicate because navigation is one of few spatial domains that can be naturally solved using multiple reference frames. That is, while spatial navigation directions can be specified using Absolute or Relative reference frames (“go north” vs “go left”), other spatial domains predominantly use Relative reference frames. Here, we used two domains to test the stability of reference frame preference: one based on navigating a four-way intersection; and the other based on the sport of ultimate frisbee. We recruited 58 ultimate frisbee players to complete an online experiment. We measured reaction time and accuracy while participants solved spatial problems in each domain using verbal prompts containing either Relative or Absolute reference frames. Details of the task in both domains were kept as similar as possible while remaining ecologically plausible so that reference frame preference could emerge. Results We pre-registered a prediction that participants would be faster using their preferred reference frame type and that this advantage would correlate across domains; we did not find such a correlation. Instead, the data reveal that people use distinct reference frames in each domain. Conclusion This experiment reveals that spatial reference frame types are not stable and may be differentially suited to specific domains. This finding has broad implications for communicating spatial information by offering an important consideration for how spatial reference frames are used in communication: task constraints may affect reference frame choice as much as individual factors or culture.

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Neural bases of action abstraction

Cited by 15 publications

References 66 publications

Distinct roles of temporal and frontoparietal cortex in representing actions across vision and language

Distinct roles of temporal and frontoparietal cortex in representing actions across vision and language

The case of CAUSE: neurobiological mechanisms for grounding an abstract concept

Reference frames in spatial communication for navigation and sports: an empirical study in ultimate frisbee players

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