Motor processing modulates word comprehension

Author(s):  
Giulia Togato ◽  
Filip Andras ◽  
Elvira Miralles ◽  
Pedro Macizo
1981 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-43
Author(s):  
Kandace A. Penner ◽  
Betsy Partin Vinson

It has been our experience in using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test that an inordinate number of verbs are missed by mentally retarded individuals. This study attempts to determine whether verb errors were due to a lack of word comprehension or a failure to understand what was being requested by the morphological-syntactic form of the stimulus. Twenty-eight subjects residing in a state facility for the mentally retarded were given a standard version and a modified version of the PPVT. On the modified version of the test, the stimulus "verbing" was altered to incorporate a syntactic helper, forming the stimulus "somebody verbing." As a result, there was a mean reduction of verb error by almost 50%.


Author(s):  
Freya Bailes

Freya Bailes deals with the topic of musical imagery, and she uses embodied cognition as a framework to argue that musical imagery is a multimodal experience. Existing empirical studies of musical imagery are reviewed and Bailes points to future directions for the study of musical imagery as an embodied-cognition phenomenon. Arguing that musical imagery can never be fully disembodied, Bailes moves beyond the idea of auditory imagery as merely a simulation of auditory experience by “the mind’s ear.” Instead, she outlines how imagining sounds involves kinesthetic imagery and she concludes that sound and music are always connected to sensory motor processing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (15) ◽  
pp. 3320
Author(s):  
Laura Blanco-Hinojo ◽  
Laia Casamitjana ◽  
Jesus Pujol ◽  
Gerard Martínez-Vilavella ◽  
Susanna Esteba-Castillo ◽  
...  

Severe hypotonia during infancy is a hallmark feature of Prader Willi syndrome (PWS). Despite its transient expression, moto development is delayed and deficiencies in motor coordination are present at older ages, with no clear pathophysiological mechanism yet identified. The diverse motor coordination symptoms present in adult PWS patients could be, in part, the result of a common alteration(s) in basic motor control systems. We aimed to examine the motor system in PWS using functional MRI (fMRI) during motor challenge. Twenty-three adults with PWS and 22 matched healthy subjects participated in the study. fMRI testing involved three hand motor tasks of different complexity. Additional behavioral measurements of motor function were obtained by evaluating hand grip strength, functional mobility, and balance. Whole brain activation maps were compared between groups and correlated with behavioral measurements. Performance of the motor tasks in PWS engaged the neural elements typically involved in motor processing. While our data showed no group differences in the simplest task, increasing task demands evoked significantly weaker activation in patients in the cerebellum. Significant interaction between group and correlation pattern with measures of motor function were also observed. Our study provides novel insights into the neural substrates of motor control in PWS by demonstrating reduced cerebellar activation during movement coordination.


2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 888-902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Tamietto ◽  
Franco Cauda ◽  
Luca Latini Corazzini ◽  
Silvia Savazzi ◽  
Carlo A. Marzi ◽  
...  

Following destruction or deafferentation of primary visual cortex (area V1, striate cortex), clinical blindness ensues, but residual visual functions may, nevertheless, persist without perceptual consciousness (a condition termed blindsight). The study of patients with such lesions thus offers a unique opportunity to investigate what visual capacities are mediated by the extrastriate pathways that bypass V1. Here we provide evidence for a crucial role of the collicular–extrastriate pathway in nonconscious visuomotor integration by showing that, in the absence of V1, the superior colliculus (SC) is essential to translate visual signals that cannot be consciously perceived into motor outputs. We found that a gray stimulus presented in the blind field of a patient with unilateral V1 loss, although not consciously seen, can influence his behavioral and pupillary responses to consciously perceived stimuli in the intact field (implicit bilateral summation). Notably, this effect was accompanied by selective activations in the SC and in occipito-temporal extrastriate areas. However, when instead of gray stimuli we presented purple stimuli, which predominantly draw on S-cones and are thus invisible to the SC, any evidence of implicit visuomotor integration disappeared and activations in the SC dropped significantly. The present findings show that the SC acts as an interface between sensory and motor processing in the human brain, thereby providing a contribution to visually guided behavior that may remain functionally and anatomically segregated from the geniculo-striate pathway and entirely outside conscious visual experience.


2002 ◽  
Vol 282 (1) ◽  
pp. R147-R155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiyuan Zheng ◽  
Christiane Patterson ◽  
Hans-Rudolf Berthoud

The caudal brain stem integrates short-term feedback signals from the oral cavity and the food-handling abdominal viscera, as well as long-term homeostatic, cognitive, and emotional signals from the forebrain, to control ingestive behavior. Glutamate, acting on various receptor subtypes, plays a prominent role in this integrative process. Fourth ventricular injection of the α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionate (AMPA)/kainate receptor blocker 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-6-nitro-2,3-dioxobenzo[ f]quinoxaline-7-sulfonamide (NBQX, 0.5–5 nmol/3 μl) dose dependently suppressed intake of 15% sucrose in food-deprived and non-food-deprived rats compared with saline injection. Two consecutive paired NBQX injections (5 nmol) into the fourth ventricle did not produce conditioned taste aversion to saccharin, but LiCl did. Intraburst lick rate and lick efficiency were not affected, but burst size and number and initial lick rate were significantly decreased by NBQX. Local injection of NBQX (2 nmol) into and near the nucleus tractus solitarius also suppressed sucrose intake. These results suggest a general role for non- N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors in the transmission of positive (feedforward) signals, but do not identify the exact processing step involved, such as taste input, sensory-motor processing, or descending facilitation. More localized injections and response measures will be necessary.


2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 2214-2222 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Morrison ◽  
M. V. Peelen ◽  
P. E. Downing

Neurology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. e224-e233 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.-Marsel Mesulam ◽  
Benjamin M. Rader ◽  
Jaiashre Sridhar ◽  
Matthew J. Nelson ◽  
Jungmoon Hyun ◽  
...  

ObjectiveTo explore atrophy–deficit correlations of word comprehension and repetition in temporoparietal cortices encompassing the Wernicke area, based on patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA).MethodsCortical thickness in regions within and outside the classical Wernicke area, measured by FreeSurfer, was correlated with repetition and single word comprehension scores in 73 right-handed patients at mild to moderate stages of PPA.ResultsAtrophy in the Wernicke area was correlated with repetition (r = 0.42, p = 0.001) but not single word comprehension (r = −0.072, p = 0.553). Correlations with word comprehension were confined to more anterior parts of the temporal lobe, especially its anterior third (r = 0.60, p < 0.001). A single case with postmortem autopsy illustrated preservation of word comprehension but not repetition 6 months prior to death despite nearly 50% loss of cortical volume and severe neurofibrillary degeneration in core components of the Wernicke area.ConclusionsTemporoparietal cortices containing the Wernicke area are critical for language repetition. Contrary to the formulations of classic aphasiology, their role in word and sentence comprehension is ancillary rather than critical. Thus, the Wernicke area is not sufficient to sustain word comprehension if the anterior temporal lobe is damaged. Traditional models of the role of the Wernicke area in comprehension are based almost entirely on patients with cerebrovascular lesions. Such lesions also cause deep white matter destruction and acute network diaschisis, whereas progressive neurodegenerative diseases associated with PPA do not. Conceptualizations of the Wernicke area that appear to conflict, therefore, can be reconciled by considering the hodologic and physiologic differences of the underlying lesions.


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