Abstract
The sensorimotor system plays a critical role in several cognitive processes. Here, we review recent studies documenting this interplay at different levels. First, we concentrate on studies that have shown how the sensorimotor system is flexibly involved in interactions with objects. We report evidence demonstrating how social context and situations influence affordance activation, and then focus on tactile and kinesthetic components in body–object interactions. Then, we turn to word use, and review studies that have shown that not only concrete words, but also abstract words are grounded in the sensorimotor system. We report evidence that abstract concepts activate the mouth effector more than concrete concepts, and discuss this effect in light of studies on adults, children, and infants. Finally, we pinpoint possible sensorimotor mechanisms at play in the acquisition and use of abstract concepts. Overall, we show that the involvement of the sensorimotor system is flexibly modulated by context, and that its role can be integrated and flanked by that of other systems such as the linguistic system. We suggest that to unravel the role of the sensorimotor system in cognition, future research should fully explore the complexity of this intricate, and sometimes slippery, relation.
Highlights
One of the aims of scientific explanation is to find unifying principles that hold true across different domains
We address the role played by the sensorimotor system across various processes, including perception and recognition of objects, conceptual acquisition, and abstract concept and word processing
The involvement of the sensorimotor system at these different levels clearly indicates that the traditional distinction between low-level processes such as perception, and high-level processes such as conceptualization and language, does not hold
Summary
One of the aims of scientific explanation is to find unifying principles that hold true across different domains. Many authors have shown that language exploits and reuses structures that are characteristic of the most basic perceptions and action processes [3]. While this is, nowadays, widely shared across studies of various disciplines, the extent to which this relation is relevant or essential for semantic processing is still under debate. In the wake of this observation, the aim of the present contribution is to shed light on this complex relation To this end, we focus on the “flexible” character of perceptual re-enactment, and we attempt to refine the notion of “sensorimotor activation”, to account for language tout court. We refer more generally to linguistic experience, which encompasses communicative and social aspects
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
