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Canal P, Bischetti L, Bertini C, Ricci I, Lecce S, Bambini V. N400 differences between physical and mental metaphors: The role of Theories of Mind. Brain Cogn 2022; 161:105879. [PMID: 35777125 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2022.105879] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2021] [Revised: 02/21/2022] [Accepted: 05/02/2022] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Whether Theory of Mind (ToM) contributes to metaphor understanding has been largely investigated in language acquisition and decay. Yet we know very little about the role of ToM in real-time processing of metaphors in neurotypical adults. Here, we tested the relationship between ToM and metaphor through Event Related Potentials (ERPs) by capitalizing on the difference between metaphors inviting inferences on physical (Boxers are pandas) vs. mental aspects (Teachers are books). Physical metaphors involved a larger and sustained negativity compared to mental ones. This pattern resembled concreteness effects and suggests that physical metaphors may benefit from both verbal and perceptual information. Moreover, higher scores in the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), but not in the Animation task, were associated with a reduction of the N400 amplitude for both physical and mental metaphors. When exploring the ERP temporal trajectory with Generalized Additive Mixed Modeling, earlier differences between metaphors characterized individuals with higher RMET scores. Among the various ToM components, thus, emotion recognition seems to be involved in the processing of metaphors in general, with an earlier impact on the mental type. These findings highlight the multifaceted nature of metaphor, at the crossroad of language, social and perceptual experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paolo Canal
- Department of Humanities and Life Sciences, University School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Pavia, Italy
| | - Luca Bischetti
- Department of Humanities and Life Sciences, University School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Pavia, Italy
| | | | | | - Serena Lecce
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - Valentina Bambini
- Department of Humanities and Life Sciences, University School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Pavia, Italy.
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2
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Li Y, Lu X, Wang Y, Wang H, Wang Y. Is the Processing of Chinese Verbal Metaphors Simulated or Abstracted? Evidence From an ERP Study. Front Psychol 2022; 13:877997. [PMID: 35911040 PMCID: PMC9328078 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.877997] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2022] [Accepted: 06/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The theory of embodied semantics holds that verbal metaphors are strongly grounded in sensorimotor experience. Many studies have proven that besides sensorimotor simulation, the comprehension of verbal metaphors also requires semantic abstraction. But the interaction between simulation and abstraction, as well as the time course of metaphorical meaning integration, is not well understood. In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether embodiment or abstraction, or both, is employed in the processing of Chinese verbal metaphor. Participants were asked to read subject-verb metaphorical, verb-object metaphorical, literal-concrete and literal-abstract sentences, and the target words were measured at the verb and the object of each sentence. The results revealed that a similar N400 effect was elicited by the target verbs in the verb-object metaphorical and the literal-concrete sentences, and a similar P600/LPC effect was induced by the target verbs in the subject-verb metaphorical and the literal-abstract sentences, reflecting that the verb-object metaphors trigger a simulation process, while the subject-verb metaphors trigger an abstraction process in the verb processing stage. Moreover, the subject-verb metaphors elicited a stronger P600/LPC effect by the target verbs than the verb-object metaphors, but there was no difference of the P600/LPC caused by the target objects between the two kinds of metaphors, revealing that the metaphorical meaning of a subject-verb metaphor is integrated in the verb processing stage, while that of a verb-object metaphor is reanalyzed in the object processing stage. These results suggest that a verbal metaphor is processed both by simulation and abstraction, and the metaphorical meaning is integrated immediately with the unfolding of the sentence meaning. The position where the semantic conflict lies in a sentence (verb vs. object) modulates the time course of metaphor sentence comprehension.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Li
- School of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Xiaoxiao Lu
- School of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
- School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
| | - Yizhen Wang
- School of International Studies, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Hanlin Wang
- Department of Psychology, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China
| | - Yue Wang
- School of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
- *Correspondence: Yue Wang,
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3
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Cervetto S, Díaz-Rivera M, Petroni A, Birba A, Caro MM, Sedeño L, Ibáñez A, García AM. The Neural Blending of Words and Movement: Event-Related Potential Signatures of Semantic and Action Processes during Motor-Language Coupling. J Cogn Neurosci 2021; 33:1413-1427. [PMID: 34496378 PMCID: PMC11115968 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Behavioral embodied research shows that words evoking limb-specific meanings can affect responses performed with the corresponding body part. However, no study has explored this phenomenon's neural dynamics under implicit processing conditions, let alone by disentangling its conceptual and motoric stages. Here, we examined whether the blending of hand actions and manual action verbs, relative to nonmanual action verbs and nonaction verbs, modulates electrophysiological markers of semantic integration (N400) and motor-related cortical potentials during a lexical decision task. Relative to both other categories, manual action verbs involved reduced posterior N400 amplitude and greater modulations of frontal motor-related cortical potentials. Such effects overlapped in a window of ∼380-440 msec after word presentation and ∼180 msec before response execution, revealing the possible time span in which both semantic and action-related stages reach maximal convergence. These results allow refining current models of motor-language coupling while affording new insights on embodied dynamics at large.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabrina Cervetto
- Departamento de Educación Física y Salud, Instituto Superior de Educación Física, Universidad de la República, Uruguay
| | - Mariano Díaz-Rivera
- Centro de Neurociencias Cognitivas, Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Agustín Petroni
- Instituto de Ingeniería Biomédica, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Laboratorio de Inteligencia Artificial Aplicada, Departamento de Computación, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, ICC-CONICET, Argentina
| | - Agustina Birba
- Centro de Neurociencias Cognitivas, Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Miguel Martorell Caro
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Lucas Sedeño
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Agustín Ibáñez
- Centro de Neurociencias Cognitivas, Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Global Brain Health Institute, University of California, San Francisco, United States, and Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
- Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Chile
| | - Adolfo M García
- Centro de Neurociencias Cognitivas, Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Global Brain Health Institute, University of California, San Francisco, United States, and Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
- Faculty of Education, National University of Cuyo (UNCuyo), Mendoza, Argentina
- Departamento de Lingüística y Literatura, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile
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An Electrophysiological Abstractness Effect for Metaphorical Meaning Making. eNeuro 2020; 7:ENEURO.0052-20.2020. [PMID: 32817197 PMCID: PMC7559308 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0052-20.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2020] [Revised: 06/13/2020] [Accepted: 07/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuroimaging studies show that metaphors activate sensorimotor areas. These findings were interpreted as metaphors contributing to conceptual thought by mapping concrete, somatosensory information onto abstract ideas. But is sensorimotor information a necessary constituent of figurative meaning? The present study employed event-related potentials (ERPs) in a divided visual field paradigm with healthy adults to explore the role of sensorimotor feature processing in the comprehension of novel metaphors via the electrophysiological concreteness effect. Participants read French, novel adjective-noun expressions that were either metaphorical (“fat sentence”) or literal (“fat hip”). While literal expressions evoked a typical concreteness effect, an enhanced frontal negativity during right hemisphere (RH) as opposed to left hemisphere (LH) presentation, metaphors showed no such sign of sensorimotor feature processing. Relative to literals, they evoked a sustained frontal negativity during LH presentation and similar amplitudes during RH presentation, but both of these effects were the greater the more abstract the metaphors were. It is the first time such an electrophysiological abstractness effect is reported, just the opposite of a concreteness effect. It is particularly noteworthy that ERPs evoked by metaphors were not contingent on figurativeness, novelty, meaningfulness, imageability, emotional valence, or arousal, only on abstractness. When compared with similarly novel literal expressions, metaphors did not evoke a typical N400 and did not activate the RH either. The findings shed new light on the neurocognitive machinery of figurative meaning construction, pervasive in everyday communication. Contrary to embodied cognition, the conceptual system might be organized around abstract representations and not sensorimotor information, even for lush, metaphorical language.
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Lai VT, Howerton O, Desai RH. Concrete processing of action metaphors: Evidence from ERP. Brain Res 2019; 1714:202-209. [PMID: 30853628 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2019.03.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2018] [Revised: 02/08/2019] [Accepted: 03/06/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The timing of sensory-motor activation during the comprehension of action verbs used in a metaphorical sense is not well understood. In the present Event Related Potential (ERP) study, participants read verbs in metaphoric (The church bent the rules), literal-concrete (The bodyguard bent the rod), and literal-abstract (The church altered the rules) conditions. The literal concreteness effect, obtained by subtracting the abstract from the concrete, was revealed as an N400, frontally distributed. A metaphoric effect, obtained in the metaphor-abstract contrast, was a widespread N400, and included the frontal response seen in the literal concreteness effect. Another metaphoric effect, obtained in the metaphor-concrete contrast, was a posterior N400. Further time window analyses showed that the literal concreteness effect primarily came from 200 to 300 ms, the metaphoric-concrete effect primarily came from 200 to 400 ms, and the metaphoric-abstract effect was significant throughout 200-500 ms. These results suggest that a concrete but underspecified meaning consistent with metaphoric and literal readings, was activated early and was sustained throughout the 200-500 ms window. We concluded that the metaphoric sense is based in concrete action semantics, even if these senses are underspecified.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vicky T Lai
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science Program, University of Arizona, 1503 E University Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
| | - Olivia Howerton
- Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, 1512 Pendelton Street, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
| | - Rutvik H Desai
- Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, 1512 Pendelton Street, Columbia, SC 29208, USA.
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Reilly M, Howerton O, Desai RH. Time-Course of Motor Involvement in Literal and Metaphoric Action Sentence Processing: A TMS Study. Front Psychol 2019; 10:371. [PMID: 30863346 PMCID: PMC6399124 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00371] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2018] [Accepted: 02/06/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
There is evidence that the motor cortex is involved in reading sentences containing an action verb ("The spike was hammered into the ground") as well as metaphoric sentences ("The army was hammered in the battle"). Verbs such as 'hammered' may be homonyms, with separate meanings belonging to the literal action and metaphoric action, or they may be polysemous, with the metaphoric sense grounded in the literal sense. We investigated the time course of the effects of single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation to primary motor cortex on literal and metaphoric sentence comprehension. Stimulation 300 ms post-verb presentation impaired comprehension of both literal and metaphoric sentences, supporting a causal role of sensory-motor areas in comprehension. Results suggest that the literal meaning of an action verb remains activated during metaphor comprehension, even after the temporal window of homonym disambiguation. This suggests that such verbs are polysemous, and both senses are related and grounded in motor cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Megan Reilly
- Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States
| | - Olivia Howerton
- Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States
| | - Rutvik H. Desai
- Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States
- Institute for Mind and Brain, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States
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Bambini V, Canal P, Resta D, Grimaldi M. Time Course and Neurophysiological Underpinnings of Metaphor in Literary Context. DISCOURSE PROCESSES 2018. [DOI: 10.1080/0163853x.2017.1401876] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Bambini
- Center for Neurocognition and Theoretical Syntax (NeTS), University School for Advanced Studies IUSS Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - Paolo Canal
- Laboratorio di Linguistica “G. Nencioni”, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy
| | - Donatella Resta
- Centro di Ricerca Interdisciplinare sul Linguaggio, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy
| | - Mirko Grimaldi
- Centro di Ricerca Interdisciplinare sul Linguaggio, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy
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Bambini V, Bertini C, Schaeken W, Stella A, Di Russo F. Disentangling Metaphor from Context: An ERP Study. Front Psychol 2016; 7:559. [PMID: 27199799 PMCID: PMC4853386 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2015] [Accepted: 04/05/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
A large body of electrophysiological literature showed that metaphor comprehension elicits two different event-related brain potential responses, namely the so-called N400 and P600 components. Yet most of these studies test metaphor in isolation while in natural conversation metaphors do not come out of the blue but embedded in linguistic and extra-linguistic context. This study aimed at assessing the role of context in the metaphor comprehension process. We recorded EEG activity while participants were presented with metaphors and equivalent literal expressions in a minimal context (Experiment 1) and in a supportive context where the word expressing the ground between the metaphor's topic and vehicle was made explicit (Experiment 2). The N400 effect was visible only in minimal context, whereas the P600 was visible both in the absence and in the presence of contextual cues. These findings suggest that the N400 observed for metaphor is related to contextual aspects, possibly indexing contextual expectations on upcoming words that guide lexical access and retrieval, while the P600 seems to reflect truly pragmatic interpretative processes needed to make sense of a metaphor and derive the speaker's meaning, also in the presence of contextual cues. In sum, previous information in the linguistic context biases toward a metaphorical interpretation but does not suppress interpretative pragmatic mechanisms to establish the intended meaning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Bambini
- Center for Neurocognition, Epistemology and theoretical Syntax (NEtS), Institute for Advanced Study (IUSS) Pavia, Italy
| | - Chiara Bertini
- Laboratorio di Linguistica "G. Nencioni", Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa, Italy
| | - Walter Schaeken
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, KU Leuven Leuven, Belgium
| | - Alessandra Stella
- Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome "Foro Italico" Rome, Italy
| | - Francesco Di Russo
- Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome "Foro Italico"Rome, Italy; Istituti di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Santa Lucia FoundationRome, Italy
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Gainotti G. Lower- and higher-level models of right hemisphere language. A selective survey. FUNCTIONAL NEUROLOGY 2016; 31:67-73. [PMID: 27358218 DOI: 10.11138/fneur/2016.31.2.067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The models advanced to explain right hemisphere (RH) language function can be divided into two main types. According to the older (lower-level) models, RH language reflects the ontogenesis of conceptual and semantic-lexical development; the more recent models, on the other hand, suggest that the RH plays an important role in the use of higher-level language functions, such as metaphors, to convey complex, abstract concepts. The hypothesis that the RH may be preferentially involved in processing the semantic-lexical components of language was advanced by Zaidel in splitbrain patients and his model was confirmed by neuropsychological investigations, proving that right brain-damaged patients show selective semanticlexical disorders. The possible links between lower and higher levels of RH language are discussed, as is the hypothesis that the RH may have privileged access to the figurative aspects of novel metaphorical expressions, whereas conventionalization of metaphorical meaning could be a bilaterally-mediated process involving abstract semantic-lexical codes.
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Stimulus needs are a moving target: 240 additional matched literal and metaphorical sentences for testing neural hypotheses about metaphor. Behav Res Methods 2016; 49:471-483. [DOI: 10.3758/s13428-016-0717-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
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