ArticleBrain and language2014
Nouns, verbs, objects, actions, and abstractions: local fMRI activity indexes semantics, not lexical categories.
Article in Brain and language, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 132 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neural correlates of embodied action language processing: a systematic review and meta-analytic study.Brain imaging and behavior · 2022Pooled it
- Neural representation of word categories is distinct in the temporal lobe: An activation likelihood analysis.Human brain mapping · 2018Pooled it
- Task type affects location of language-positive cortical regions by repetitive navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation mapping.PloS one · 2015Trial
- The space of words: semantic integration of space-related words in noun sensorimotor processing.Psychological research · 2026Article
- A two-dimensional space of linguistic representations shared across individuals.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Neural Representations of Concreteness and Concrete Concepts Are Specific to the Individual.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Predictive Brain Activity Shows Congruent Semantic Specificity in Language Comprehension and Production.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Automated free speech analysis reveals distinct markers of Alzheimer's and frontotemporal dementia.PloS one · 2024Article
- The concrete processing of Chinese action metaphors: an ERP study.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Presurgical Language Mapping: What Are We Testing?Journal of personalized medicine · 2023Article
- Contribution and functional connectivity between cerebrum and cerebellum on sub-lexical and lexical-semantic processing of verbs.PloS one · 2023Article
- The characterization of actions at the superordinate, basic and subordinate level.Psychological research · 2022Article
- Inflection across Categories: Tracking Abstract Morphological Processing in Language Production with MEG.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2022Article
- Ultimate Grounding of Abstract Concepts: A Graded Account.Journal of cognition · 2022Article
- Significantly different noun-verb distinguishing mechanisms in written Chinese and Chinese sign language: An event-related potential study of bilingual native signers.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- Evidence for the Concreteness of Abstract Language: A Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies.Brain sciences · 2021Review
- Contextual Acquisition of Concrete and Abstract Words: Behavioural and Electrophysiological Evidence.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- Cortical Tracking of Speech: Toward Collaboration between the Fields of Signal and Sentence Processing.Journal of cognitive neuroscience · 2021Article
- Acquisition of concrete and abstract words is modulated by tDCS of Wernicke's area.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- No evidence for differences among language regions in their temporal receptive windows.NeuroImage · 2020Article
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2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
Noun/verb dissociations in the literature defy interpretation due to the confound between lexical category and semantic meaning; nouns and verbs typically describe concrete objects and actions. Abstract words, pertaining to neither, are a critical test case: dissociations along lexical-grammatical lines would support models purporting lexical category as the principle governing brain organisation, whilst semantic models predict dissociation between concrete words but not abstract items. During fMRI scanning, participants read orthogonalised word categories of nouns and verbs, with or without concrete, sensorimotor meaning. Analysis of inferior frontal/insula, precentral and central areas revealed an interaction between lexical class and semantic factors with clear category differences between concrete nouns and verbs but not abstract ones. Though the brain stores the combinatorial and lexical-grammatical properties of words, our data show that topographical differences in brain activation, especially in the motor system and inferior frontal cortex, are driven by semantics and not by lexical class.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.