title: Words in the brain's language: an experimental investigation.
abstract: According to Pulvermüller (1999), words are represented in the brain by cell assemblies (Hebb, 1949) distributed over different areas, depending on semantic properties of the word. For example, a word with strong visual associations will be represented by a cell assembly involving neurons in the visual cortex, while a word suggesting action will selectively activate neurons in the motor areas. The present work aims to test the latter hypothesis by means of behavioural measures. Specifically it tests the prediction that there should be a selective influence (in terms either of interference or priming) of performed/observed movements on the performance (reaction times and accuracy) of lexical decision involving words with a strong action association. Similarly, a selective influence of visual images on lexical decision involving words with strong visual associations should be observed. Two experiments were carried out. Results provided partial support for the hypothesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, NUI Maynooth, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland. psetola@cs.may.ie
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Setola
authors.forename: Ronan G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Reilly
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*