Event-related potentials elicited after sentences inducing movement imagery

Some late components of event-related potentials (ERP) have been interpreted as psychophysiological correlates of words and sentences comprehension and imagery. This study was aimed at revealing the ERP components changes after listening to sentences inducing movement imagination. Right-handed subjects were instructed to imagine self-paced movements after listening to sentences, differing in presence/absence of object and/or instrument of action. ERP were recorded over frontal, sensorimotor and temporo-parietal areas in both hemispheres. The effects of the movement type (T) and between-site factors (E) were estimated using 2-way ANOVA. Six dominant ERP components were detected up to 1.5 s. E-factor had significant independent effect on all ERP components, while T-factor was significant for the components up to 0.8 s in frontal (left and right) and in ipsilateral sensori-motor areas. The results suggest that the larger ERP latencies and the increased amplitudes at frontal and sensorimotor areas are due to motor imagery combined with the comprehension of sentences with different structure.