Abstract
This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigates a crucial parameter in spatial description, namely variants in the frame of reference chosen. Two frames of reference are available in European languages for the description of small-scale assemblages, namely the intrinsic (or object-oriented) frame and the relative (or egocentric) frame. We showed participants a sentence such as “the ball is in front of the man”, ambiguous between the two frames, and then a picture of a scene with a ball and a man – participants had to respond by indicating whether the picture did or did not match the sentence. There were two blocks, in which we induced each frame of reference by feedback. Thus for the crucial test items, participants saw exactly the same sentence and the same picture but now from one perspective, now the other. Using this method, we were able to precisely pinpoint the pattern of neural activation associated with each linguistic interpretation of the ambiguity, while holding the perceptual stimuli constant. Increased brain activity in bilateral parahippocampal gyrus was associated with the intrinsic frame of reference whereas increased activity in the right superior frontal gyrus and in the parietal lobe was observed for the relative frame of reference. The study is among the few to show a distinctive pattern of neural activation for an abstract yet specific semantic parameter in language. It shows with special clarity the nature of the neural substrate supporting each frame of spatial reference.
Highlights
The aim of the study reported here is to shed light on the cortical systems underlying the spatial frame of reference concepts crucially involved in spatial language
We show here that it is possible to pinpoint the contribution of specific patterns of neural activation to an abstract aspect of meaning, namely the specific frame of reference or spatial coordinate system associated with the description of a spatial scene
In the present event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study we investigated the cortical systems underlying the concepts of spatial frames of reference that are crucially involved in spatial language
Summary
The aim of the study reported here is to shed light on the cortical systems underlying the spatial frame of reference concepts crucially involved in spatial language. We use linguistic ambiguities of frames of reference to pinpoint the cortical activations associated with each of two distinct frames of reference. We are able to localize the circuitry associated with an abstract parameter of linguistic meaning. Language constructs ambiguities – two takes on the same linguistic string. The ball is in front of the man could mean ‘the ball is at the man’s front’ (see Figure 1, Panel A) or ‘the ball is between me and the man’. Both kinds of interpretation may be valid (see e.g. Panel B, C1). In the latter case, how could we tell which way an observer is thinking? How could we tell which way an observer is thinking? We will suggest that each perspective has a distinctive neural signature
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