The effect of motor context on semantic processing: A TMS study

Marco, Doriana De; Stefani, Elisa De; Bernini, Diego; Gentilucci, Maurizio

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.05.003

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…We hypothesized a reduction in the MEP signal, for both Italian and German sentences, driven by the negative markers that occurred at different sentence-specific timings (depending on the position of the adverb in each language) but at a common and word-specific timing (i.e., 250 ms after adverb presentation). This would be in line with evidence supporting that (I) semantic processing is automatically initiated immediately after the presentation of a lexical input (see also Hauk, Shtyrov, & Pulvermüller, 2008;Hinojosa, Martín-Loeches, Muñoz, Casado, & Pozo, 2004) and that (II) motor-related processes of discrimination between various semantic types (e.g., meaningful vs. meaningless, as well as motor vs. abstract lexical items) take place around 250 ms after stimulus onset (De Marco et al, 2018;Kellenbach et al, 2002;Pulvermüller et al, 2001;Scorolli et al, 2012). Moreover, we hypothesized that MEPs related to the processing of concrete sentences should be higher than those related to abstract sentences (see also Innocenti, De Stefani, Sestito, & Gentilucci, 2014;Scorolli et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Embodied negation and levels of concreteness: A TMS study on German and Italian language processing

et al. 2021

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According to the embodied cognition perspective, linguistic negation may block the motor simulations induced by language processing. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to the left primary motor cortex (hand area) of monolingual Italian and German healthy participants during a rapid serial visual presentation of sentences from their own language. In these languages, the negative particle is located at the beginning and at the end of the sentence, respectively. The study investigated whether the interruption of the motor simulation processes, accounted for by reduced motor evoked potentials (MEPs), takes place similarly in two languages differing on the position of the negative marker. Different levels of sentence concreteness were also manipulated to investigate if negation exerts generalized effects or if it is affected by the semantic features of the sentence. Our findings indicate that negation acts as a block on motor representations, but independently from the language and words concreteness level.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Embodied negation and levels of concreteness: A TMS study on German and Italian language processing

et al. 2021

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“…Thus, memorizing abstract words by performing gestures might change their cognitive representations and make them more similar to concrete words. Interestingly, in a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) study, De Marco and colleagues 90 investigated the excitability of the motor cortex during abstract word comprehension. They expected a modulation of motor cortex excitability if a word had previously been connected to a semantically-related gesture.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual recognition of words learned with gestures induces motor resonance in the forearm muscles

Repetto

Mathias

Weichselbaum

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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According to theories of Embodied Cognition, memory for words is related to sensorimotor experiences collected during learning. At a neural level, words encoded with self-performed gestures are represented in distributed sensorimotor networks that resonate during word recognition. Here, we ask whether muscles involved in gesture execution also resonate during word recognition. Native German speakers encoded words by reading them (baseline condition) or by reading them in tandem with picture observation, gesture observation, or gesture observation and execution. Surface electromyogram (EMG) activity from both arms was recorded during the word recognition task and responses were detected using eye-tracking. The recognition of words encoded with self-performed gestures coincided with an increase in arm muscle EMG activity compared to the recognition of words learned under other conditions. This finding suggests that sensorimotor networks resonate into the periphery and provides new evidence for a strongly embodied view of recognition memory.

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“…In a recent TMS study, De Marco et al (2018) tested the effect of context in modulating motor cortex excitability during abstract words semantic processing. The presentation of a congruent manual symbolic gesture as prime stimulus increased hand M1 excitability in the earlier phase of semantic processing and speeded word comprehension.…”

Section: What Is Embodied About Communication? the Involvement Of Mirmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A large amount of researches have claimed that, during language production and comprehension, gesture and spoken language are tightly connected (Gunter and Bach, 2004; Bernardis and Gentilucci, 2006; Gentilucci et al, 2006; Gentilucci and Dalla Volta, 2008; Campione et al, 2014; De Marco et al, 2015, 2018), suggesting that the neural systems for language understanding and action production are closely interactive (Andric et al, 2013).…”

Section: Gestures: a Bridge Between Language And Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Neurophysiological studies showed controversial evidences about the core brain areas involved in gestures and words integration, that include different neural substrates as M1 (De Marco et al, 2015, 2018) IFG, MTG and superior temporal gyrus/sulcus (STG/S) (Willems and Hagoort, 2007; Straube et al, 2012; Dick et al, 2014; Özyürek, 2014; Fabbri-Destro et al, 2015). However, IFG virtual lesion showed to disrupt gesture-speech integration effect (Gentilucci et al, 2006), in accordance with the idea of human Broca’s area (and so the mirror circuit) as the core neural substrate of action, gesture and language processing and interplay (Arbib, 2005).…”

Section: Gestures: a Bridge Between Language And Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Language, Gesture, and Emotional Communication: An Embodied View of Social Interaction

Stefani

Marco

2019

Front. Psychol.

Self Cite

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Spoken language is an innate ability of the human being and represents the most widespread mode of social communication. The ability to share concepts, intentions and feelings, and also to respond to what others are feeling/saying is crucial during social interactions. A growing body of evidence suggests that language evolved from manual gestures, gradually incorporating motor acts with vocal elements. In this evolutionary context, the human mirror mechanism (MM) would permit the passage from “doing something” to “communicating it to someone else.” In this perspective, the MM would mediate semantic processes being involved in both the execution and in the understanding of messages expressed by words or gestures. Thus, the recognition of action related words would activate somatosensory regions, reflecting the semantic grounding of these symbols in action information. Here, the role of the sensorimotor cortex and in general of the human MM on both language perception and understanding is addressed, focusing on recent studies on the integration between symbolic gestures and speech. We conclude documenting some evidence about MM in coding also the emotional aspects conveyed by manual, facial and body signals during communication, and how they act in concert with language to modulate other’s message comprehension and behavior, in line with an “embodied” and integrated view of social interaction.

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The effect of motor context on semantic processing: A TMS study

Cited by 10 publications

References 49 publications

Embodied negation and levels of concreteness: A TMS study on German and Italian language processing

Embodied negation and levels of concreteness: A TMS study on German and Italian language processing

Visual recognition of words learned with gestures induces motor resonance in the forearm muscles

Language, Gesture, and Emotional Communication: An Embodied View of Social Interaction

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