Abstract
Two views on the semantics of concrete words are that their core mental representations are feature-based or are reconstructions of sensory experience. We argue that neither of these approaches is capable of representing the semantics of abstract words, which involve the representation of possibly hypothetical physical and mental states, the binding of entities within a structure, and the possible use of embedding (or recursion) in such structures. Brain based evidence in the form of dissociations between deficits related to concrete and abstract semantics corroborates the hypothesis. Neuroimaging evidence suggests that left lateral inferior frontal cortex supports those processes responsible for the representation of abstract words.
Highlights
The best known theorizing on the organization of the semantic system within the embodied or grounded cognition approach is that of Barsalou (2008)
THE SEPARABLE SYSTEMS APPROACH In Shallice and Cooper (2011) we argued that differences from concrete concepts in the computational requirements for how they are represented in an underlying semantic system, such as those discussed above, make it plausible that representing the meanings of abstract concepts involves a different computational system than that involved in representing the meanings of concrete concepts
We further argued in Shallice and Cooper (2011) that given requirements such as these, it would be plausible that the computational microstructure of the region of the human cortex supporting the representation and processing of abstract concepts would be different from that of the anterior temporal cortex held to support the representation of concrete concepts, and proposed on the basis of functional imaging and patient studies that this abstract representational system was located in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex
Summary
Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Italy. Reviewed by: Christian Fiebach, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany Francesca Garbarini, University of Turin, Italy Giosuè Baggio, SISSA International School for Advanced Studies, Italy. Two views on the semantics of concrete words are that their core mental representations are feature-based or are reconstructions of sensory experience. We argue that neither of these approaches is capable of representing the semantics of abstract words, which involve the representation of possibly hypothetical physical and mental states, the binding of entities within a structure, and the possible use of embedding (or recursion) in such structures. Brain based evidence in the form of dissociations between deficits related to concrete and abstract semantics corroborates the hypothesis. Neuroimaging evidence suggests that left lateral inferior frontal cortex supports those processes responsible for the representation of abstract words
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