Verb Processing Research Articles

Early lexico-semantic modulation of motor related areas during action and non-action verb processing

Although action verb processing deficits have been described in diseases affecting the motor system, research on temporal processing in this area has not been reported. In this study, action and non-action verb processing was contrasted in healthy volunteers using electro-encephalography. These data may serve as a control condition for further research in motor disorders. Latency and amplitude evaluations as well as source reconstruction were applied on event-related potentials. Action verbs evoked higher activation in bilateral sensorimotor areas from 155 to 174 ms and in bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) from 219 to 238 ms. Hand action verb processing activates the motor programmes of the actions the verbs refer to. This seems not restricted to the core (pre)motor cortical areas of the brain. A broad motor brain network is hypothesized to be involved. While sensorimotor activation seems essential for action verb understanding, this cannot be concluded for DLPFC activation. • Single verb processing evokes a peak in activity at 165 ms post-stimulus onset. • Bilateral sensorimotor cortex is activated by hand action verbs from 155 to 174 ms. • Sensorimotor activation is automatic and necessary for action verb understanding. • Bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex contributes to hand action verb processing. • Embodied theories of cognition are confirmed.

How the brain processes different dimensions of argument structure complexity: Evidence from fMRI

Verbs are central to sentence processing, as they encode argument structure (AS) information, i.e., information about the syntax and interpretation of the phrases accompanying them. The behavioral and neural correlates of AS processing have primarily been investigated in sentence-level tasks, requiring both verb processing and verb-argument integration. In the current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we investigated AS processing using a lexical decision task requiring only verb processing. We examined three aspects of AS complexity: number of thematic roles, number of thematic options, and mapping (non)canonicity (unaccusative vs. unergative and transitive verbs). Increased number of thematic roles elicited greater activation in the left posterior perisylvian regions claimed to support access to stored AS representations. However, the number of thematic options had no neural effects. Further, unaccusative verbs elicited longer response times and increased activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus, reflecting the processing cost of unaccusative verbs and, more generally, supporting the role of the IFG in noncanonical argument mapping.

First-person and third-person verbs in visual motion-perception regions

Verb-related activity is consistently found in the left posterior lateral cortex (PLTC), encompassing also regions that respond to visual-motion perception. Besides motion, those regions appear sensitive to distinctions among the entities beyond motion, including that between first- vs. third-person (“third-person bias”). In two experiments, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we studied whether the implied subject (first/third-person) and/or the semantic content (motor/non-motor) of verbs modulate the neural activity in the left PLTC-regions responsive during basic- and biological-motion perception. In those sites, we found higher activity for verbs than for nouns. This activity was modulated by the person (but not the semantic content) of the verbs, with stronger response to third- than first-person verbs. The third-person bias elicited by verbs supports a role of motion-processing regions in encoding information about the entity beyond (and independently from) motion, and sets in a new light the role of these regions in verb processing.

Brain dynamics in the comprehension of action-related language. A time-frequency analysis of mu rhythms

EEG mu rhythms (8–13Hz) recorded at fronto-central electrodes are generally considered as markers of motor cortical activity in humans, because they are modulated when participants perform an action, when they observe another's action or even when they imagine performing an action. In this study, we analyzed the time-frequency (TF) modulation of mu rhythms while participants read action language (“You will cut the strawberry cake”), abstract language (“You will doubt the patient's argument”), and perceptive language (“You will notice the bright day”). The results indicated that mu suppression at fronto-central sites is associated with action language rather than with abstract or perceptive language. Also, the largest difference between conditions occurred quite late in the sentence, while reading the first noun, (contrast Action vs. Abstract), or the second noun following the action verb (contrast Action vs. Perceptive). This suggests that motor activation is associated with the integration of words across the sentence beyond the lexical processing of the action verb. Source reconstruction localized mu suppression associated with action sentences in premotor cortex (BA 6). The present study suggests (1) that the understanding of action language activates motor networks in the human brain, and (2) that this activation occurs online based on semantic integration across multiple words in the sentence.

Language–motor interference reflected in MEG beta oscillations

The involvement of the brain's motor system in action-related language processing can lead to overt interference with simultaneous action execution. The aim of the current study was to find evidence for this behavioural interference effect and to investigate its neurophysiological correlates using oscillatory MEG analysis. Subjects performed a semantic decision task on single action verbs, describing actions executed with the hands or the feet, and abstract verbs. Right hand button press responses were given for concrete verbs only. Therefore, longer response latencies for hand compared to foot verbs should reflect interference. We found interference effects to depend on verb imageability: overall response latencies for hand verbs did not differ significantly from foot verbs. However, imageability interacted with effector: while response latencies to hand and foot verbs with low imageability were equally fast, those for highly imageable hand verbs were longer than for highly imageable foot verbs. The difference is reflected in motor-related MEG beta band power suppression, which was weaker for highly imageable hand verbs compared with highly imageable foot verbs. This provides a putative neuronal mechanism for language–motor interference where the involvement of cortical hand motor areas in hand verb processing interacts with the typical beta suppression seen before movements. We found that the facilitatory effect of higher imageability on action verb processing time is perturbed when verb and motor response relate to the same body part. Importantly, this effect is accompanied by neurophysiological effects in beta band oscillations. The attenuated power suppression around the time of movement, reflecting decreased cortical excitability, seems to result from motor simulation during action-related language processing. This is in line with embodied cognition theories.

Grammatical category mediates the bilingual disadvantage in word retrieval

Grammatical category mediates the bilingual disadvantage in word retrieval

Online Sentence Comprehension in PPA: Verb-Based Integration and Prediction

Online Sentence Comprehension in PPA: Verb-Based Integration and Prediction

Morphological Processing of Regular Verbs in Native French Speakers

Morphological Processing of Regular Verbs in Native French Speakers

The Impact of Cyber-Experience on Action Verb Processing

The Impact of Cyber-Experience on Action Verb Processing

Contribution of motor representations to action verb processing

Electrophysiological and brain imaging studies show a somatotopic activation of the premotor cortex while subjects process action verbs. This somatotopic motor activation has been taken as an indication that the meaning of action verbs is embedded in motor representations. However, discrepancies in the literature led to the alternative hypothesis that motor representations are activated during the course of a mental imagery process emerging only after the meaning of the action has been accessed. In order to address this issue, we asked participants to decide whether a visually presented verb was concrete or abstract by pressing a button or a pedal (primary task) and then to provide a distinct vocal response to low and high sounds played soon after the verb display (secondary task). Manipulations of the visual display (lower vs. uppercase), verb imageability (concrete vs. abstract), verb meaning (hand vs. foot-related), and response effector (hand vs. foot) allowed us to trace the perceptual, semantic and response stages of verb processing. We capitalized on the psychological refractory period (PRP), which implies that the initiation of the secondary task should be delayed only by those factors that slow down the central decision process in the primary task. In line with this prediction, our results showed that the time cost resulting from the processing of abstract verbs, when compared to concrete verbs, was still observed in the subsequent response to the sounds, whereas the overall advantage of hand over foot responses did not influence sound judgments. Crucially, we also observed a verb-effector compatibility effect (i.e., foot-related verbs are responded faster with the foot and hand-related verbs with the hand) that contaminated the performance of the secondary task, providing clear evidence that motor interference from verb meaning occurred during the central decision stage. These results cannot be explained by a mental imagery process that would deploy only during the execution of the response to verb judgments. They rather indicate that the motor activation induced by action verbs accompanies the lexico-semantic processes leading to response selection.

How do conceptual representations interact with processing demands: An fMRI study on action- and abstract-related words

This fMRI study investigated the functional mechanisms related to mental simulation of abstract- and action-related words and measured the effect of the type of stimulus (Abstract vs. action verbs) and the type of task (imagery vs. control task) to explore how conceptual representations interact with processing demands. A significant task by stimuli interaction showed that action-related words activated the left sensorimotor cortex during explicit imagery (as compared to the control task), whereas abstract-related verbs did not automatically activate this area. Rather, as we made sure that Abstract verbs were not associated with motor states (as tested in a rating study of our stimulus list), imagery elicited by abstract verb processing (as compared to Action verbs, and controlled for letter detection) differentially activated a right hemisphere neural network including the right supramarginal (SMG) gyrus and the precuneus which might be related to mental imagery of emotion-related scenes and not to the semantics of the stimuli per se. Our results confirmed the view that the activation of the sensorimotor cortex during language processing of abstract- and action-related words is strategy-dependent.

Grasping hand verbs: oscillatory beta and alpha correlates of action-word processing.

The grounded cognition framework proposes that sensorimotor brain areas, which are typically involved in perception and action, also play a role in linguistic processing. We assessed oscillatory modulation during visual presentation of single verbs and localized cortical motor regions by means of isometric contraction of hand and foot muscles. Analogously to oscillatory activation patterns accompanying voluntary movements, we expected a somatotopically distributed suppression of beta and alpha frequencies in the motor cortex during processing of body-related action verbs. Magnetoencephalographic data were collected during presentation of verbs that express actions performed using the hands (H) or feet (F). Verbs denoting no bodily movement (N) were used as a control. Between 150 and 500 msec after visual word onset, beta rhythms were suppressed in H and F in comparison with N in the left hemisphere. Similarly, alpha oscillations showed left-lateralized power suppression in the H-N contrast, although at a later stage. The cortical oscillatory activity that typically occurs during voluntary movements is therefore found to somatotopically accompany the processing of body-related verbs. The combination of a localizer task with the oscillatory investigation applied to verb reading as in the present study provides further methodological possibilities of tracking language processing in the brain.

Limb apraxia and verb processing in Alzheimer’s disease

Objective: The present research investigates language and praxis abilities in patients with Alzheimer’s disease in order to study the relationship between these two cognitive domains. Method: The experimental evaluation of patients and control group performance was designed to permit a direct comparison of linguistic abilities (i.e., verb and noun naming and sentence comprehension) and praxic abilities (i.e., gesture execution for complex movements). Moreover, for the first time, action comprehension was explored using the Action Sequence Comprehension. Results and conclusion: Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and correlational analyses showed that a direct relationship may exist between language impairment and apraxia in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, the production and comprehension of both language and action were equally impaired in patients, providing further evidence for a spectrum of concomitant linguistic and praxis deficits in Alzheimer’s disease. Finally, the ability to correctly comprehend action semantics was related more directly to verb production ability than to noun production.

Argument structure and the representation of abstract semantics.

According to the dual coding theory, differences in the ease of retrieval between concrete and abstract words are related to the exclusive dependence of abstract semantics on linguistic information. Argument structure can be considered a measure of the complexity of the linguistic contexts that accompany a verb. If the retrieval of abstract verbs relies more on the linguistic codes they are associated to, we could expect a larger effect of argument structure for the processing of abstract verbs. In this study, sets of length- and frequency-matched verbs including 40 intransitive verbs, 40 transitive verbs taking simple complements, and 40 transitive verbs taking sentential complements were presented in separate lexical and grammatical decision tasks. Half of the verbs were concrete and half were abstract. Similar results were obtained in the two tasks, with significant effects of imageability and transitivity. However, the interaction between these two variables was not significant. These results conflict with hypotheses assuming a stronger reliance of abstract semantics on linguistic codes. In contrast, our data are in line with theories that link the ease of retrieval with availability and robustness of semantic information.

Modulation of arm reaching movements during processing of arm/hand-related action verbs with and without emotional connotation.

The theory of embodied language states that language comprehension relies on an internal reenactment of the sensorimotor experience associated with the processed word or sentence. Most evidence in support of this hypothesis had been collected using linguistic material without any emotional connotation. For instance, it had been shown that processing of arm-related verbs, but not of those leg-related verbs, affects the planning and execution of reaching movements; however, at present it is unknown whether this effect is further modulated by verbs evoking an emotional experience. Showing such a modulation might shed light on a very debated issue, i.e. the way in which the emotional meaning of a word is processed. To this end, we assessed whether processing arm/hand-related verbs describing actions with negative connotations (e.g. to stab) affects reaching movements differently from arm/hand-related verbs describing actions with neutral connotation (e.g. to comb). We exploited a go/no-go paradigm in which healthy participants were required to perform arm-reaching movements toward a target when verbs expressing emotional hand actions, neutral hand actions or foot actions were shown, and to refrain from moving when no-effector-related verbs were presented. Reaction times and percentages of errors increased when the verb involved the same effector as used to give the response. However, we also found that the size of this interference decreased when the arm/hand-related verbs had a negative emotional connotation. Crucially, we show that such modulation only occurred when the verb semantics had to be retrieved. These results suggest that the comprehension of negatively valenced verbs might require the simultaneous reenactment of the neural circuitry associated with the processing of the emotion evoked by their meaning and of the neural circuitry associated with their motor features.

Verb gapping: An action-gap compatibility study

This study addresses the processing of verb-gapping sentences, e.g., John closes a juice bottle and Jim [ ] a lemonade bottle. The goal was to explore if there would be an interaction between language comprehension and motor action not only for overt action verbs but also for gapped verbs. Participants read gapping sentences that either described clockwise or counter-clockwise manual rotations (e.g., closes vs. opens a juice bottle). Adopting a paradigm developed by Zwaan and Taylor (2006), sentence presentation was frame-by-frame. Participants proceeded from frame to frame by turning a knob either clockwise or counter clockwise. Analyses of the frame reading-times yielded a significant effect of compatibility between the linguistically conveyed action and the knob turning for the overt-verb (e.g., closes/opens a juice bottle) as well as for the gapped-verb frame (e.g., a lemonade bottle) – with longer reading times in the match condition than in the mismatch condition – but not for any of the other frames (e.g., and Jim). The results are promising in providing novel evidence for the real-time reactivation of gapped verbs and in suggesting that action simulation is not bound to the processing of overt verbs.

Spatiotemporal dynamics during processing of abstract and concrete verbs: An ERP study

Different accounts have been proposed to explain the nature of concept representations. Embodied accounts claim a key involvement of sensory-motor systems during semantic processing while more traditional accounts posit that concepts are abstract mental entities independent of perceptual and motor brain systems. While the involvement of sensory-motor areas in concrete language processing is supported by a large number of studies, this involvement is far from being established when considering abstract language. The present study addressed abstract and concrete verb processing, by investigating the spatiotemporal dynamics of evoked responses by means of high density EEG while participants performed a semantic decision task. In addition, RTs to the same set of stimuli were collected. In both early and late time intervals, ERP scalp topography significantly differed according to word categories. Concrete verbs showed involvement of parieto-frontal networks for action, according to the implied body effector. In contrast, abstract verbs recruited mostly frontal regions outside the motor system, suggesting a non-motor semantic processing for this category. In addition, differently from what has been reported during action observation, the parietal recruitment related to concrete verbs presentation followed the frontal one. The present findings suggest that action word semantic is grounded in sensory-motor systems, provided a bodily effector is specified, while abstract concepts׳ representation cannot be easily explained by a motor embodiment.

To move or not to move: Subthalamic deep brain stimulation effects on implicit motor simulation

We explored implicit motor simulation processes in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients with ON-OFF subthalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the sub-thalamic nucleus (STN).Participants made lexical decisions about hand action-related verbs, abstract verbs, and pseudowords presented either within a positive (e.g., “Do …”) or a negative (e.g., “Don’t …”) sentence context. Healthy controls showed significantly slower responses for hand-action verbs (vs. abstract verbs) in the negative (vs. positive) context, which suggests that negative contexts may suppress motor simulation or preparation processes. The STN-DBS improves cortical motor functions, thus patients are expected to perform at the same level as unimpaired subjects in the ON condition. By contrast, the 50% reduced DBS is expected to result in a reduced activation for motor information, which in turn might cause a reduced, if not absent, context modulation.PD patients exhibited the same pattern as controls when their DBS was at 100% ON; however, reducing the DBS to 50% had a deleterious outcome on the positive faster than negative context effect, suggesting that the altered inhibition mechanism in PD could be responsible for the missed effect. In addition, our results confirm the view that implicit motor simulation mechanisms behind action-related verb processing are flexible and context-dependent.

The neural bases of argument structure processing revealed by primed lexical decision

Previous studies have reported anticipatory effects during sentence processing. However, the source of these effects has not been clearly characterized. This study investigated the hypothesis that one source of anticipatory effects, particularly during verb processing, is the automatic triggering of argument structure processes. If argument structure processes are automatically triggered it was hypothesized that the task need not require the initiation of the process, as such a primed lexical decision task was used that examined the neural priming of cross-grammatical class prime pairs (e.g., verb-noun priming). While previous studies, as does the current study, have revealed behavioral priming for cross-grammatical class and within-class (noun–noun and verb–verb) prime/target pairs, the current results revealed significant activation differences. Enhancement effects were observed for cross-grammatical class priming in the language network, particularly the inferior frontal gyrus (BA 47), and the posterior temporal cortex. Both regions have been linked to argument structure processing previously. Within-class priming resulted in neural suppression of the inferior temporal/occipital regions. Together, the data presented suggest the automatic triggering of argument structure representations and demonstrate that priming is a fruitful mechanism to explore aspects of sentence processing.

Do sentences with unaccusative verbs involve syntactic movement? Evidence from neuroimaging

This study focuses on the neural processing of English sentences containing unergative, unaccusative and transitive verbs. We demonstrate common responses in bilateral superior temporal gyri in response to listening to sentences containing unaccusative and transitive verbs compared to unergative verbs; we did not detect any activation that was specific to unaccusatives. Our findings indicate that the neural processing of unaccusative and transitive verbs is highly similar, and very different from the processing of unergative verbs. We discuss the consequences of these results for the linguistic analysis of movement phenomena.