Abstract
Recent approaches in the tradition of theories of semantic and conceptual “grounding” emphasize the role of perceptual and motor knowledge in language as well as action understanding. However, the role of the two cerebral hemispheres in integrating action-motor and language processes is not clear yet. The present study looked at the influence of a simultaneous motor tapping task on word processing. In a lexical decision task, uni-manual and bi-manual hand-related, and foot-related action verbs were presented in the left and right visual half-field. A group of healthy participants performed tapping with the left hand and lexical decisions with their right hand. In a second group of participants, the reversed hand response pattern was applied. The results showed that response hand had an influence on functional lateralization of word processing when responses were executed with the non-dominant hand. Projecting words to the ipsilateral hemisphere relative to the hemisphere performing lexical decisions led to significantly decreased performance. The results showed that left hand responses led to an increased accuracy for hand-related in contrast to foot-related action verbs. The findings suggest an influence of response hand on action word processing.
Highlights
Recent approaches on embodied cognition and theories of semantic and conceptual “grounding” emphasize the role of perceptual and motor knowledge in language as well as in action understanding (Barsalou, 2008)
Further evidence for a functional link between the motor and the semantic language system comes from patients with neurodegenerative diseases affecting the motor system (Boulenger et al, 2008; York et al, 2014), autism spectrum conditions (Moseley et al, 2014, 2015) and patients with focal brain lesions in the premotor- and motor cortex (Neininger and Pulvermüller, 2001, 2003; Dreyer et al, 2015) who show a specific impairment of action word processing
In a dual task study with a divided visual field paradigm, we addressed the interaction of motor performance on action word processing
Summary
Recent approaches on embodied cognition and theories of semantic and conceptual “grounding” emphasize the role of perceptual and motor knowledge in language as well as in action understanding (Barsalou, 2008). The functional connection between the language and the motor system has been addressed in a number of studies in recent years (Pulvermüller et al, 2001, 2005; Hauk and Pulvermüller, 2004; Hauk et al, 2004; Boulenger et al, 2006; Scorolli and Borghi, 2007; Nazir et al, 2008; Borghi and Scorolli, 2009; Scorolli et al, 2009; Fargier et al, 2012a,b; Shebani and Pulvermüller, 2013; Strozyk et al, 2017) In this context, a large part of research focuses on the processing of action-related words vs non-action words.
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