Auditory perception modulated by word reading.
Theories of embodied cognition positing that sensorimotor areas are indispensable during language comprehension are supported by neuroimaging and behavioural studies. Among others, the auditory system has been suggested to be important for understanding sound-related words (visually presented) and the motor system for action-related words. In this behavioural study, using a sound detection task embedded in a lexical decision task, we show that in participants with high lexical decision performance sound verbs improve auditory perception. The amount of modulation was correlated with lexical decision performance. Our study provides convergent behavioural evidence of auditory cortex involvement in word processing, supporting the view of embodied language comprehension concerning the auditory domain.
School of Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QB, UK. liyuc@psy.gla.ac.uk.
Liyu
L
Cao
Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, 40225, Germany.
Anne
A
Klepp
Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, 40225, Germany.
Alfons
A
Schnitzler
Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QB, UK.
Joachim
J
Gross
Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, 40225, Germany.
Katja
K
Biermann-Ruben
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013997:Time Factors; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult
Auditory perception; Embodied cognition; Language processing; Sound-related words