Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Semantic Memory: Building Models from Lesions
- Part II Insights from Electrophysiology
- Part III Applications of Models to Understanding Cognitive Dysfunction
- Part IV Representations of Nouns and Verbs vs. Objects and Actions
- 6 Effects of word imageability on semantic access: neuroimaging studies
- 7 The neural systems processing tool and action semantics
- 8 The semantic representation of nouns and verbs
- Part V Critical Role of Subcortical Nuclei in Semantic Functions
- Part VI Conceptual Models of Semantics
- Index
- References
7 - The neural systems processing tool and action semantics
from Part IV - Representations of Nouns and Verbs vs. Objects and Actions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 September 2009
By
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Semantic Memory: Building Models from Lesions
- Part II Insights from Electrophysiology
- Part III Applications of Models to Understanding Cognitive Dysfunction
- Part IV Representations of Nouns and Verbs vs. Objects and Actions
- 6 Effects of word imageability on semantic access: neuroimaging studies
- 7 The neural systems processing tool and action semantics
- 8 The semantic representation of nouns and verbs
- Part V Critical Role of Subcortical Nuclei in Semantic Functions
- Part VI Conceptual Models of Semantics
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter discusses the contributions of functional imaging to our understanding of how action and tool concepts are represented and processed in the human brain. Section 7.1 introduces cognitive models of semantic organization. Section 7.2 provides a brief overview of functional imaging approaches to identify brain regions that have specialized for processing action and tool representations. Section 7.3 discusses the relationship between the visuomotor system and semantic processing of actions. Section 7.4 investigates the effects of action type and visual experience on action-selective responses. Section 7.5 characterizes the neural systems engaged in tool processing and how they are modulated by task and stimulus modality. Section 7.6 delineates future directions that may enable us to characterize the neural mechanisms that mediate tool and action-selective brain responses.
Cognitive models of semantic organization
Since the seminal work of Warrington and Shallice (1984), double dissociations of semantic deficits have been established between tools and animals (for review, see Gainotti et al., 1995; Warrington & Shallice, 1984; Capitani et al., 2003; Gainotti & Silveri, 1996; Farah et al., 1996; Hillis & Caramazza, 1991; Sacchett & Humphreys, 1992; Warrington & McCarthy, 1987). These double dissociations persist even when attempts are made to control general processing differences due to confounding variables such as familiarity, visual complexity, or word frequency (Farah et al., 1996; Sartori et al., 1993). They appear, therefore, to reflect some sort of semantic organization at the neuronal level.
Many cognitive models have been offered to explain these category-specific deficits.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Neural Basis of Semantic Memory , pp. 182 - 204Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
References
Allport, D. A. (1985). Distributed memory, modular subsystems and dysphasia. In and (eds.), Current Perspectives in Dysphasia. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, pp. 32–60.Google Scholar
and (2003). Language evolution: neural homologies and neuroinformatics. Neural Networks, 16: 1237–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2003). Grounding conceptual knowledge in modality-specific systems. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7: 84–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2002). Parallel visual motion processing streams for manipulable objects and human movements. Neuron, 34: 149–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2003). FMRI responses to video and point-light displays of moving humans and manipulable objects. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 15: 991–1001.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2004). Integration of auditory and visual information about objects in superior temporal sulcus. Neuron, 41: 809–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (1996). Specific involvement of human parietal systems and the amygdala in the perception of biological motion. Journal of Neuroscience, 16: 3737–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , et al. (2005). Distinctions between manipulation and function knowledge of objects: evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging. Brain Research Cognitive Brain Research, 23: 361–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , et al. (2001). Action observation activates premotor and parietal areas in a somatotopic manner: an fMRI study. European Journal of Neuroscience, 13: 400–4.Google Scholar
, , , et al. (2004a). Neural circuits involved in the recognition of actions performed by nonconspecifics: an FMRI study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16: 114–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , et al. (2004b). Neural circuits underlying imitation learning of hand actions: an event-related fMRI study. Neuron, 42: 323–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (2000). Function and manipulation tool knowledge in apraxia: Knowing “what for” but not “how”. Neurocase, 6: 83–97.Google Scholar
, , , and (2003). What are the facts of category-specific deficits? A critical review of the clinical evidence. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 20: 213–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , , and (1998). The effects of semantic category and knowledge type on lexical–semantic access: a PET study. Neuroimage, 8: 350–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (1998). Domain-specific knowledge systems in the brain: the animate–inanimate distinction. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 10: 1–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2000). Representation of manipulable man-made objects in the dorsal stream. Neuroimage, 12: 478–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and (1999). Attribute-based neural substrates in temporal cortex for perceiving and knowing about objects. Nature Neuroscience, 2: 913–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and (2002). Experience-dependent modulation of category-related cortical activity. Cerebral Cortex, 12: 545–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(2002). Category-specific effects: segregation of semantic knowledge and degree of feature processing in the brain. Thesis/Dissertation.
, , , , and (1996). A neural basis for lexical retrieval. Nature, 380: 499–505.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , et al. (2002). Anatomic constraints on cognitive theories of category specificity. Neuroimage, 15: 675–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2005). Cortical responses to invisible objects in the human dorsal and ventral pathways. Nature Neuroscience, 8: 1380–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and (1996). The living–nonliving dissociation is not an artefact: giving an a priori implausible hypothesis a strong test. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 13: 137–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , , , and (2005). Parietal lobe: from action organization to intention understanding. Science, 308: 662–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2005). Motor functions of the parietal lobe. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 15: 626–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (1995). Neuroanatomical correlates of category-specific semantic disorders: a critical survey. Memory, 3: 247–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (1996). Cognitive and anatomical locus of lesion in a patient with a category-specific semantic impairment for living beings. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 13: 357–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , and (2000). Categorization and category effects in normal object recognition. A PET study. Neuropsychologia, 38: 1693–703.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2002a). The role of action knowledge in the comprehension of artifacts – a PET study. Neuroimage, 15: 143–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (2002b). When action turns into words. Activation of motor-based knowledge during categorization of manipulable objects. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14: 1230–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (1998). Premotor and prefrontal correlates of category-related lexical retrieval. Neuroimage, 7: 232–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (1997). Premotor cortex activation during observation and naming of familiar tools. Neuroimage, 6: 231–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2003). Activations related to “mirror” and “canonical” neurones in the human brain: an fMRI study. Neuroimage, 18: 928–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (1998). Top–down effect of strategy on the perception of human biological motion: a PET investigation. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 15: 553–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and (2004). Somatotopic representation of action words in human motor and premotor cortex. Neuron, 41: 301–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (1991). Category-specific naming and comprehension impairment: a double dissociation. Brain, 114: 2081–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(2003). The elusive concept of brain connectivity. Neuroimage, 19: 466–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2001). Hierarchies, similarity, and interactivity in object recognition: “category-specific” neuropsychological deficits. Behavioral Brain Science, 24: 453–76.Google ScholarPubMed
, , , , , and (2005). Grasping the intentions of others with one's own mirror neuron system. Public Library of Science Biology, 3: e79.Google ScholarPubMed
, , , , , and (1999). Cortical mechanisms of human imitation. Science, 286: 2526–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2003). Auditory and action semantic features activate sensory-specific perceptual brain regions. Current Biology, 13: 1792–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , , , and (2003). Actions or hand–object interactions? Human inferior frontal cortex and action observation. Neuron, 39: 1053–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(2001). Functional neuroimaging studies of category specificity in object recognition: a critical review and meta-analysis. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 1: 119–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and (2003). Actions speak louder than functions. The importance of manipulability and action in tool representation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 15: 30–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , , , and (2002). Hearing sounds, understanding actions: action representation in mirror neurons. Science, 297: 846–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2000). Activation in human MT/MST by static images with implied motion. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12: 48–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2002). Neural activation during an explicit categorization task: category- or feature-specific effects?Brain Research: Cognitive Brain Research, 13: 213–20.Google ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2005). Distinct cortical pathways for processing tool versus animal sounds. Journal of Neuroscience, 25: 5148–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(1991). Half a century of research on the Stroop effect: an integrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 109: 163–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2001). Semantic memory and the brain: structure and processes. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 11: 194–201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , , and (1995). Discrete cortical regions associated with knowledge of color and knowledge of action. Science, 270: 102–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, A, Ungerleider, L. G., and Haxby, J. V. (2000). Category-specificity and the brain: the sensory/motor model of semantic representations of objects. In (ed.), The Cognitive Neurosciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 1023–37.Google Scholar
, , , and (1996). Neural correlates of category-specific knowledge. Nature, 379: 649–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(2000). Towards a network theory of cognition. Neural Networks, 13: 861–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2003). A dynamic causal modeling study on category effects: bottom–up or top–down mediation?Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 15: 925–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , , and (2002). Separable neuronal circuitries for manipulable and non-manipulable objects in working memory. Cerebral Cortex, 12: 1115–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(1990). Large-scale neurocognitive networks and distributed processing for attention, language, and memory. Annals of Neurology, 28: 597–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1999). A functional neuroimaging study of the variables that generate category-specific object processing differences. Brain, 122: 943–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (1998). Functional neuroanatomy of the semantic system: divisible by what?Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 10: 766–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , and (1996). Generating “tiger” as an animal name or a word beginning with T: differences in brain activation. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, B: Biological Sciences, 263: 989–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , , and (2000). Selectivity for the shape, size, and orientation of objects for grasping in neurons of monkey parietal area AIP. Journal of Neurophysiology, 83: 2580–601.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , , and (2005). Observing others: multiple action representation in the frontal lobe. Science, 310: 332–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , , and (2005). Valid conjunction inference with the minimum statistic. Neuroimage, 25: 653–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Noppeney U. (2004). The feature-based model of semantic memory. In , , , et al. (eds.), Human Brain Function. London: Elsevier, pp. 533–47.Google Scholar
and (2002). A PET study of stimulus- and task-induced semantic processing. Neuroimage, 15: 927–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and (2003). Effects of visual deprivation on the organisation of the semantic system. Brain, 126: 1620–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , , and (2005). Action selectivity in parietal and temporal cortex. Brain Research: Cognitive Brain Research, 25: 641–9.Google ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2006). Two distinct neural mechanisms for category-selective responses. Cerebral Cortex, 16: 437–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , et al. (2001). Different brain correlates for watching real and virtual hand actions. Neuroimage, 14: 749–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , , , and (1999). Word and picture matching: a PET study of semantic category effects. Neuropsychologia, 37: 293–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and (2005). Orofacial somatomotor responses in the macaque monkey homologue of Broca's area. Nature, 435: 1235–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2002a). The neural substrates of action retrieval: an examination of semantic and visual routes to action. Vision and Cognition, 9(4): 662–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , and (2002b). Can segregation within the semantic system account for category-specific deficits?Brain, 125: 2067–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, C. and Friston, K. (2002). Functional imaging studies of category specificity. In and (eds.), Category Specificity in Brain and Mind. Hove, Sussex: Psychology Press, pp. 427–45.Google Scholar
and (1997). Cognitive conjunction: a new approach to brain activation experiments. Neuroimage, 5: 261–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(2005). Brain mechanisms linking language and action. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 6: 576–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (1998). Language within our grasp. Trends in Neuroscience, 21: 188–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2004). The mirror-neuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27: 169–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , et al. (1996). Localization of grasp representations in humans by PET: 1. Observation versus execution. Experimental Brain Research, 111: 246–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and (2002). Motor and cognitive functions of the ventral premotor cortex. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 12: 149–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2001). Effect of subjective perspective taking during simulation of action: a PET investigation of agency. Nature Neuroscience, 4: 546–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and (2001). Complementary localization and lateralization of orienting and motor attention. Nature Neuroscience, 4: 656–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2003). The left parietal and premotor cortices: motor attention and selection. Neuroimage, 20 Suppl 1: S89–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1992). Calling a squirrel a squirrel but a canoe a wigwam: a categry-specific deficit for artifactual objects and body parts. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 5: 3–25.Google Scholar
, , and (1993). Category-specific naming impairments? Yes. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 46A: 489–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , et al. (2000). The functional neuroanatomy of implicit-motion perception or representational momentum. Current Biology, 10: 16–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(1988). From Neuropsychology to Mental Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (1991). The role of sensorimotor experience in object recognition. A case of multimodal agnosia. Brain, 114: 2555–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , et al. (2005). Listening to action-related sentences activates fronto-parietal motor circuits. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17: 273–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (1999). A neural basis for category and modality specificity of semantic knowledge. Neuropsychologia, 37: 671–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2001). Towards a distributed account of conceptual knowledge. Trends Cognitive Science, 5: 244–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2000). Conceptual structure and the structure of concepts: a distributed account of category-specific deficits. Brain and Language, 75: 195–231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , et al. (2001). I know what you are doing. a neurophysiological study. Neuron, 31: 155–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , , and (2005). Motion verb sentences activate left posterior middle temporal cortex despite static context. Neuroreport, 16: 649–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , et al. (1996). Noun and verb retrieval by normal subjects. Studies with PET. Brain, 119: 159–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (1987). Categories of knowledge. Further fractionations and an attempted integration. Brain, 110: 1273–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed