Creating number semantics through finger movement perception.
Communication, language and conceptual knowledge related to concrete objects may rely on the sensory-motor systems from which they emerge. How abstract concepts can emerge from these systems is however still unknown. Here we report a functional interaction between a specific meaningful finger movement, such as a finger grip closing, and a concept as abstract as numerical magnitude. Participants were presented with Arabic digits to recall before or after they perceived a biological or non-biological hand movement. The results show that perceiving a grip closing slows down the processing of large magnitude numbers. Importantly, we show that this motor-to-semantic interaction differs from the reverse semantic-to-motor interaction, and that it does not result from a general movement amplitude processing as it is only observed for biological hand movements. These results demonstrate the functional link between number meaning and goal-directed finger movements, and show how abstract concept semantics can emerge from the sensory-motor circuits of the brain.
Badets
Arnaud
A
Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l'Apprentissage, CNRS UMR 6234, France.
Pesenti
Mauro
M
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012660:Semantics