title: Where the brain appreciates the final state of an event: the neural correlates of telicity.
abstract: In this study we investigated whether the human brain distinguishes between telic events that necessarily entail a specified endpoint (e.g., reaching), and atelic events with no delimitation or final state (e.g., chasing). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the patterns of neural response associated with verbs denoting telic and atelic events, and found that the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG), an area consistently engaged by verb processing tasks, showed a significantly higher activation for telic compared with atelic verbs. These results provide the first evidence that the human brain appreciates whether events lead to an end or a change of state. Moreover, they provide an explanation for the long-debated question of which verb properties modulate neural activity in the left pMTG, as they indicate that, independently of any other semantic property, verb processing and event knowledge in this area are specifically related to the representation of telicity.
authors: Department of Linguistics "T. Bolelli", University of Pisa, Italy.
authors: Domenica
authors: D
authors: Romagno
authors: Giuseppina
authors: G
authors: Rota
authors: Emiliano
authors: E
authors: Ricciardi
authors: Pietro
authors: P
authors: Pietrini
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen