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Updated: May 23, 2025

Eye-tracking to Distinguish Comprehension-based and Oculomotor-based Regressive Eye Movements During Reading
Published on: October 18, 2018
Abstract sentence meanings are grounded in the sensory-motor regions in a context-dependent fashion
Le Li1, Jiaman Tang2, Xinyi Chen2
1Key Laboratory of Language and Cognitive Science (Ministry of Education), Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, PR China; Center for the Cognitive Science of Language, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, PR China.
Abstract:
Sentences conveying abstract meanings are crucial tools for high-level thinking and communication. Previous research has sparked a debate on whether abstract concepts rely on the representation of the sensory-motor brain areas. We explored this issue with the assumption that abstract meanings at the sentence level could invoke the sensory-motor regions a context-dependent fashion. With a sentence comprehension task and functional MRI, we measured the neural response patterns of sentences with multimodal abstract meaning, which were presented following context sentences describing either concrete sound-related or action-related events. Multivariate pattern analyses revealed that neural responses to sentences could discriminate abstract sentences in sound- versus action-related contexts, and also context sentences describing these two types of events. The discrimination was manifested in the regions responsible for high-level auditory perception and action execution. Our finding indicates that abstract meanings in modality-specific contexts mayrequire a certain degree of grounded processing in the sensory-motor regions.
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