Abstract
Does the motor cortex differentiate between linguistic symbols and scribbles?
Highlights
How the human brain distinguishes between linguistic symbols and scribbles is not entirely understood
Some experimental evidence indicates the existence of a specialized visuo-motor network that serves the perception of written language symbols as well as their production (e.g., Anderson et al, 1990; Starrfelt, 2007)
Heimann and colleagues found that all handwriting categories evoked activity in the observer’s cortical motor system. This first result suggests that the brain interpreted the handwritings “motorically” as traces of hand movements executed by another individual, regardless of whether they were language symbols (i.e., Roman letters and Chinese characters) or scribbles, and regardless of whether the observer was familiar or trained in the handwriting style
Summary
How the human brain distinguishes between linguistic symbols (i.e., letters and characters) and scribbles is not entirely understood. Heimann et al asked individuals to observe Roman letters (belonging to the alphabet of the participant’s mother language), Chinese (unfamiliar) characters, and scribbles (judged by the participants as not being linguistic symbols).
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