Chapter 19 - Language in the Brain, Body, and World

Summary

Language-based presonance is an automatic and effortless process in which the retrieval of experiential traces is triggered by the perception of linguistic structures. Central to the mental simulation view of language comprehension is the claim that individual words are linked to sensorimotor memory traces that form the basis of mental simulation. Although it is useful to study the processing of words and sentences presented in isolation, most language-comprehension situations involve connected discourse. Just as comprehenders use eye movements to trace the actions described in a discourse, they also use gestures to keep track of discourse entities across time. Language comprehension is grounded in the same neural systems that are used to perceive, plan, and take action in the external world. An essential part of the language comprehension process is the ability to anticipate what is coming next, both in the linguistic input and in the situations that are being described.