Somatotopic representation of action words in human motor and premotor cortex

被引:1378
作者
Hauk, O [1 ]
Johnsrude, I [1 ]
Pulvermüller, F [1 ]
机构
[1] MRC, Cognit & Brain Sci Unit, Cambridge CB2 2EF, England
基金
英国医学研究理事会;
关键词
D O I
10.1016/S0896-6273(03)00838-9
中图分类号
Q189 [神经科学];
学科分类号
071006 ;
摘要
Since the early days of research into language and the brain, word meaning was assumed to be processed in specific brain regions, which most modern neuroscientists localize to the left temporal lobe. Here we use event-related fMRI to show that action words referring to face, arm, or leg actions (e.g., to lick, pick, or kick), when presented in a passive reading task, differentially activated areas along the motor strip that either were directly adjacent to or overlapped with areas activated by actual movement of the tongue, fingers, or feet. These results demonstrate that the referential meaning of action words has a correlate in the somatotopic activation of motor and premotor cortex. This rules out a unified "meaning center" in the human brain and supports a dynamic view according to which words are processed by distributed neuronal assemblies with cortical topographies that reflect word semantics.
引用
收藏
页码:301 / 307
页数:7
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