title: Emotional context modulates embodied metaphor comprehension.
abstract: Emotions are often expressed metaphorically, and both emotion and metaphor are ways through which abstract meaning can be grounded in language. Here we investigate specifically whether motion-related verbs when used metaphorically are differentially sensitive to a preceding emotional context, as compared to when they are used in a literal manner. Participants read stories that ended with ambiguous action/motion sentences (e.g., he got it), in which the action/motion could be interpreted metaphorically (he understood the idea) or literally (he caught the ball) depending on the preceding story. Orthogonal to the metaphorical manipulation, the stories were high or low in emotional content. The results showed that emotional context modulated the neural response in visual motion areas to the metaphorical interpretation of the sentences, but not to their literal interpretations. In addition, literal interpretations of the target sentences led to stronger activation in the visual motion areas as compared to metaphorical readings of the sentences. We interpret our results as suggesting that emotional context specifically modulates mental simulation during metaphor processing.
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Nijmegen, Kapittelweg 29, 6525 EN Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: Dalyasamur@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Dalya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Samur
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525 XD Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, 1512 Pendleton St., Columbia, SC 29208, United States.
authors.forename: Vicky T
authors.initials: VT
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Nijmegen, Kapittelweg 29, 6525 EN Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525 XD Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hagoort
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Nijmegen, Kapittelweg 29, 6525 EN Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525 XD Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Roel M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Willems
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D019365:Metaphor; D033262:Narration; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011932:Reading; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Context; Discourse comprehension; Emotion; Metaphor; fMRI