ReviewFrontiers in human neuroscience2019
Concrete vs. Abstract Semantics: From Mental Representations to Functional Brain Mapping.
Review in Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Aberrant brain language network in schizophrenia spectrum disorder: a systematic review of its relation to language signs beyond symptoms.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Development, Normative Data, and Psychometric Properties of the Turkish Semantic Association Test (SEMAT) for Middle-Aged and Older Adults.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- The experiential basis of concepts: integrating embodied and enactive accounts.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Article
- Keeping track of time: Horizontal spatial biases for hours, days, and months.Memory & cognition · 2024Article
- Spatiotemporal target selection for intracranial neural decoding of abstract and concrete semantics.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2022Article
- Words have a weight: language as a source of inner grounding and flexibility in abstract concepts.Psychological research · 2022Article
- Embodying Language through Gestures: Residuals of Motor Memories Modulate Motor Cortex Excitability during Abstract Words Comprehension.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Flexing the principal gradient of the cerebral cortex to suit changing semantic task demands.eLife · 2022Article
- Effects of social experience on abstract concepts in semantic priming.Frontiers in psychology · 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
- Corroborating behavioral evidence for the interplay of representational richness and semantic control in semantic word processing.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Acquisition of concrete and abstract words is modulated by tDCS of Wernicke's area.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Psychological and Electrophysiological Correlates of Word Learning Success.Psychology in Russia : state of the art · 2021Article
- Dual-task performance of speech and motor skill: verb generation facilitates grasping behaviour.Experimental brain research · 2020Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The nature of abstract and concrete semantics and differences between them have remained a debated issue in psycholinguistic and cognitive studies for decades. Most of the available behavioral and neuroimaging studies reveal distinctions between these two types of semantics, typically associated with a so-called "concreteness effect." Many attempts have been made to explain these differences using various approaches, from purely theoretical linguistic and cognitive frameworks to neuroimaging experiments. In this brief overview, we will try to provide a snapshot of these diverse views and relationships between them and highlight the crucial issues preventing this problem from being solved. We will argue that one potentially beneficial way forward is to identify the neural mechanisms underpinning acquisition of the different types of semantics (e.g., by using neurostimulation techniques to establish causal relationships), which may help explain the distinctions found between the processing of concrete and abstract semantics.
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Registered trials
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.