SynthesisScientific reports2021
An ALE meta-analytical review of the neural correlates of abstract and concrete words.
Synthesis in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Frontotemporal network interactions causally support rapid concreteness judgments during reading.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Functional Specialization of the Visual Word Form Area During Word Reading: A Multimodal Neuroimaging Study.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Neural correlates of risky monetary decision-making impacting others.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging of taxonomic and thematic processing of abstract and concrete word pairs.Journal of neuropsychology · 2025Article
- Mapping Contributions of the Anterior Temporal Semantic Hub to the Processing of Abstract and Concrete Verbs.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Basque-Spanish Bilingual Aphasia: A Case-Study to Reveal Frequency-Based, Language-Agnostic Lexical Organization in Bilinguals.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Processing L2 action verbs shares the same mechanisms for processing L1 items: evidence from a combined behavioral and MEG study.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Noun imageability and the processing of sensory-based information.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2024Article
- The Neuropsychological Assessment of Unilateral Spatial Neglect Through Computerized and Virtual Reality Tools: A Scoping Review.Neuropsychology review · 2024Article
- Neurocognitive correlates of semantic memory navigation in Parkinson's disease.NPJ Parkinson's disease · 2024Article
- Spatiotemporal characteristics of the neural representation of event concepts.Brain and language · 2023Article
- Structural and functional neural substrates underlying the concreteness effect.Brain structure & function · 2023Article
- Semantic Bimodal Presentation Differentially Slows Working Memory Retrieval.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Article
- Concrete and Abstract Concepts in Primary Progressive Aphasia and Alzheimer's Disease: A Scoping Review.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- The Three Terms Task - an open benchmark to compare human and artificial semantic representations.Scientific data · 2023Article
- Influence of language on perception and concept formation in a brain-constrained deep neural network model.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Evidence for the Concreteness of Abstract Language: A Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies.Brain sciences · 2021Review
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Several clinical studies have reported a double dissociation between abstract and concrete concepts, suggesting that they are processed by at least partly different networks in the brain. However, neuroimaging data seem not in line with neuropsychological reports. Using the ALE method, we run a meta-analysis on 32 brain-activation imaging studies that considered only nouns and verbs. Five clusters were associated with concrete words, four clusters with abstract words. When only nouns were selected three left activation clusters were found to be associated with concrete stimuli and only one with abstract nouns (left IFG). These results confirm that concrete and abstract words processing involves at least partially segregated brain areas, the IFG being relevant for abstract nouns and verbs while more posterior temporoparietal-occipital regions seem to be crucial for processing concrete words, in contrast with the neuropsychological literature that suggests a temporal anterior involvement for concrete words. We investigated the possible reasons that produce different outcomes in neuroimaging and clinical studies.
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