title: Congruent embodied representations for visually presented actions and linguistic phrases describing actions.
abstract: The thesis of embodied semantics holds that conceptual representations accessed during linguistic processing are, in part, equivalent to the sensory-motor representations required for the enactment of the concepts described . Here, using fMRI, we tested the hypothesis that areas in human premotor cortex that respond both to the execution and observation of actions-mirror neuron areas -are key neural structures in these processes. Participants observed actions and read phrases relating to foot, hand, or mouth actions. In the premotor cortex of the left hemisphere, a clear congruence was found between effector-specific activations of visually presented actions and of actions described by literal phrases. These results suggest a key role of mirror neuron areas in the re-enactment of sensory-motor representations during conceptual processing of actions invoked by linguistic stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Via Volturno, 39/E, I-43100 Parma, Italy. lisa.azizzadeh@usc.edu
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Aziz-Zadeh
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rizzolatti
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iacoboni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011932:Reading; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*