ReviewBrain sciences2021
From Affordances to Abstract Words: The Flexibility of Sensorimotor Grounding.
Review in Brain sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- The properties of personal semantics.Memory & cognition · 2026Article
- A sensorimotor function construct to assess mild cognitive impairment risk.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Object numerosity influence sensorimotor programs evoked by graspable object nouns.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Evidence of Embodiment-based changes in older Adult Language.Psychological research · 2025Review
- Enhancing English language acquisition through physical education and motor imagery: assessing enjoyment, English retention, and skill accuracy in adolescent learners.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The Evolution of Symbolic Thought: At the Intersection of Schizophrenia Psychopathology, Ethnoarchaeology, and Neuroscience.Culture, medicine and psychiatry · 2024Article
- More than labels: neural representations of emotion words are widely distributed across the brain.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2024Article
- The social roots of self development: from a bodily to an intellectual interpersonal dialogue.Psychological research · 2023Review
- The elicitation of affordance depends on conceptual attributes: evidence from a virtual reality study.Experimental brain research · 2023Article
- The role of implicit motor simulation on action verb memory.Psychological research · 2023Article
- On the social nature of abstraction: cognitive implications of interaction and diversity.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Concepts, abstractness and inner speech.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- The influence of sensorimotor experience on beauty evaluation of preschool children.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Article
- Do graspable objects always leave a motor signature? A study on memory traces.Experimental brain research · 2022Article
- Abstract concepts: external influences, internal constraints, and methodological issues.Psychological research · 2022Review
- The Role of the Sensorimotor System in Cognitive Functions.Brain sciences · 2022Article
- Article
- Abstract Concepts, Social Interaction, and Beliefs.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The sensorimotor system plays a critical role in several cognitive processes. Here, we review recent studies documenting this interplay at different levels. First, we concentrate on studies that have shown how the sensorimotor system is flexibly involved in interactions with objects. We report evidence demonstrating how social context and situations influence affordance activation, and then focus on tactile and kinesthetic components in body-object interactions. Then, we turn to word use, and review studies that have shown that not only concrete words, but also abstract words are grounded in the sensorimotor system. We report evidence that abstract concepts activate the mouth effector more than concrete concepts, and discuss this effect in light of studies on adults, children, and infants. Finally, we pinpoint possible sensorimotor mechanisms at play in the acquisition and use of abstract concepts. Overall, we show that the involvement of the sensorimotor system is flexibly modulated by context, and that its role can be integrated and flanked by that of other systems such as the linguistic system. We suggest that to unravel the role of the sensorimotor system in cognition, future research should fully explore the complexity of this intricate, and sometimes slippery, relation.
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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.