The Neural Blending of Words and Movement: Event-Related Potential Signatures of Semantic and Action Processes during Motor–Language Coupling

Abstract

Behavioral embodied research shows that words evoking limb-specific meanings can affect responses performed with the corresponding body part. However, no study has explored this phenomenon's neural dynamics under implicit processing conditions, let alone by disentangling its conceptual and motoric stages. Here, we examined whether the blending of hand actions and manual action verbs, relative to nonmanual action verbs and nonaction verbs, modulates electrophysiological markers of semantic integration (N400) and motor-related cortical potentials during a lexical decision task. Relative to both other categories, manual action verbs involved reduced posterior N400 amplitude and greater modulations of frontal motor-related cortical potentials. Such effects overlapped in a window of ∼380–440 msec after word presentation and ∼180 msec before response execution, revealing the possible time span in which both semantic and action-related stages reach maximal convergence. These results allow refining current models of motor–language coupling while affording new insights on embodied dynamics at large.

Body into Narrative: Behavioral and Neurophysiological Signatures of Action Text Processing After Ecological Motor Training

“…Other text-level studies (on patient populations) have linked lower outcomes in this category with reduced connectivity along fronto-parietal (Moguilner et al, 2021a) and other sensorimotor (Birba et al, 2021a) networks, without comparable effects in non-action categories. In line with embodied views of language (Gallese and Sinigaglia, 2011, Pulvermüller, 2013a, 2013b, Gallese and Cuccio, 2018, Cervetto et al, 2021, this association speaks to a direct link between action semantics and sensorimotor systems, as bodily training would induce proportional changes in their behavioral and FC signatures, respectively. In this sense, our study extends previous evidence on athletes, showing that the neural signatures of action verb processing are shaped by individual experience (Lyons et al, 2010).…”

Detecting Parkinson’s disease and its cognitive phenotypes via automated semantic analyses of action stories

“…The quest for cognitive markers of Parkinson’s disease (PD) highlights the usefulness of assessing action concepts—mainly verbs denoting bodily movement, such as run , jump , applaud , and dance 1 . Indeed, their processing hinges on motor brain networks 2 – 4 and is influenced by the speed and precision of bodily actions 5 , 6 . Since PD compromises these neural circuits and behavioral dimensions, action concepts have been proposed as a robust target to identify patients and differentiate between phenotypes 1 .…”

Where Is Meaning? Mind, Matter and Meaning

“…Meaning is created as a result of the whole organism interacting with the environment. For example, activations in brain structures and sensorimotor systems are intercoupled [12]. It is also not localizable in a specific brain area, because the binding of multimodal semantic features relies on long-range connections; it is binding by synchrony [13].…”