The embodiment of language in tremor-dominant Parkinson’s disease patients

Abstract

According to embodied cognition, processing language with motor content involves a simulation of this content by the brain motor system. Patients with brain lesions involving the motor system are characterized by deficits in action verbs processing in the absence of dementia. We sought to assess whether action verbs interfere with the motor behavior of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) having tremor dominant symptoms. PD tremor is considered to result from dysfunction of cortical-subcortical motor circuits driven by dopamine depletion. In addition, PD tremor is reduced during active movement execution. Therefore, likewise movement execution, the motor simulation of bodily actions predicted by the embodiment may show to be effective in modifying tremor by interfering with a dysfunctional motor system. Here, we asked to simply read and repeat words expressing a hand-related bodily action. Abstract verbs served as control. Changes in tremor kinematics were evaluated using a monoaxial accelerometer. Seventeen PD patients with rest tremor of the upper limbs were enrolled. Tremor amplitude was significantly smaller when reading action verbs as compared to abstract verbs. We provide empirical evidence supporting the embodied cognition theory by showing that circuits mediating tremor of PD patients are distinctively affected by processing action language.