Functional MRI of Sensory-Motor Metaphor Processing

项目概述：概念和词义的本质是认知科学中最重要、最长期、最具争议的问题之一。语言意义的传统观点认为，概念是抽象的、模态的和象征性的，并且在大脑的感觉-运动系统之外实现。人们对感知和认知之间存在密切联系的理论重新产生了兴趣。这些理论表明，概念性知识在感觉-运动系统中被映射，或被“具体化”。在此，我们建议使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来研究概念与感觉-运动系统之间的联系。我们希望为大脑中概念编码的具体理论和抽象理论之间的争论提供直接的神经证据。隐喻语言为研究感知和认知之间的联系提供了一个很好的平台。隐喻在日常语言中无处不在，有人认为我们的概念系统本质上是隐喻的。我们建议研究当抽象概念被隐喻地理解为具体概念时，处理抽象概念是否会激活感觉-运动系统。广泛的行为学、神经心理学和神经生理学研究为概念表征和隐喻处理提供了有价值的见解。然而，很少有神经影像学研究能够揭示隐喻处理的神经相关性，特别是它与感觉-运动系统的关系。具体目的1是研究在理解包含感觉运动动词的隐喻句子时，大脑的感觉运动区域被激活的程度。我们假设在理解感觉运动动词时，感觉运动系统会被激活，即使它们是在抽象的、隐喻的意义上使用。具体目的二是通过参数化地改变感觉运动隐喻的熟悉程度，研究隐喻加工的自动性对感觉运动区域激活的影响。我们假设隐喻熟悉度与感觉运动系统的激活呈负相关。我们还将研究熟悉度和两个半球在隐喻理解中的贡献之间的关系。该项目将有助于促进对人类语义系统正常功能的理解，这对于理解脑损伤后的损伤和恢复至关重要。相关性：一系列神经和精神疾病，如自闭症、阿尔茨海默病、流利性失语、颞叶癫痫和精神分裂症，都会导致概念系统功能障碍。我们的目标是更好地描述这一系统，这将对理解这些疾病和制定合理的语言再学习和补救方法至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Project Summary: The nature of concepts and word meanings is one of the most important, longstanding, and contentious issues in cognitive science. The traditional view of linguistic meaning holds that concepts are abstract, amodal, and symbolic, and are implemented outside the brain's sensory-motor systems. There has been a resurgence of interest in theories that suggest a close tie between perception and cognition. These theories suggest that conceptual knowledge is mapped within the sensory-motor system, or is "embodied". Here, we propose to study the connection between concepts and sensory-motor systems using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We hope to provide direct neural evidence bearing on the debate between embodied and abstract theories of conceptual coding in the brain. Metaphoric language provides an excellent platform for studying the link between perception and cognition. Metaphors are pervasive in everyday language, and it has been suggested that our conceptual system is fundamentally metaphoric in nature. We propose to examine whether processing abstract concepts activates sensory-motor systems when these concepts are understood metaphorically in terms of concrete concepts. Extensive behavioral, neuropsychological, and neurophysiological research provides valuable insights into conceptual representation and metaphor processing. Little neuroimaging research, however, exists that can shed light on neural correlates of metaphor processing and especially its relationship to sensory-motor systems. Specific Aim 1 is to study the extent to which sensory-motor areas of the brain are activated when comprehending metaphorical sentences involving sensory-motor verbs. We hypothesize that sensory-motor systems will be activated when comprehending sensory-motor verbs, even when they are used in an abstract, metaphoric sense. Specific Aim 2 is to study the effects of automaticity of metaphor processing on the activation of sensory-motor areas by parametrically varying the familiarity of sensory-motor metaphors. We hypothesize that metaphor familiarity will be inversely correlated with the activation of sensory motor systems. We will also examine the relationship between familiarity and the contribution of the two hemispheres in metaphor comprehension. This project will help advance the understanding of the normal functioning of the human semantic system, which is central to understanding impairments and recovery following brain damage. Relevance: A range of neurological and psychiatric diseases such as autism, Alzheimer disease, fluent aphasia, temporal lobe epilepsy, and schizophrenia result in dysfunction of the conceptual system. We aim to provide a better characterization of this system, which will be critical in understanding these diseases and in formulating rational approaches to language relearning and remediation.