Event Title

Session 1D: Embodied Cognition: An Invalidation of the Connection between Mind and Body

Session Number

Session 1D: 2nd Presentation

Advisor(s)

Vernon Leo Towle, University of Chicago

Location

Room A155

Start Date

28-4-2017 8:30 AM

End Date

28-4-2017 9:45 AM

Abstract

One of modern neuroscience’s most intriguing ideas is that cognition is embodied. Would saying or even thinking of words that correspond to actions cause activation in the regions of the brain that would normally be activated when physically performing the same actions? This study investigates whether brain activity after listening to a hearing-related noun and subsequently saying a hearing-related verb is significantly different from brain activity after listening to a hand-related or mouth-related noun and saying a hand-related or mouth-related action verb in the auditory area of the cortex. We studied ten surgical epilepsy patients, and using MRI scans, imaged their brains and compared gamma activity from chronically implanted subdural electrodes to obtain waveforms for hand-, mouth-, and hearing-related words for each electrode. Overall, none of the comparisons were significantly different. It is likely that all words, regardless of body part correlation, are processed the same in the auditory area as the patient listens and repeats a corresponding verb. It is also possible that the auditory area was not the ideal area to investigate how hearing action verbs prompt somatotopic processing, and perhaps identifying the location of the “auditory area” in the primary somatosensory cortex would be more helpful.

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Apr 28th, 8:30 AM Apr 28th, 9:45 AM

Session 1D: Embodied Cognition: An Invalidation of the Connection between Mind and Body

Room A155

One of modern neuroscience’s most intriguing ideas is that cognition is embodied. Would saying or even thinking of words that correspond to actions cause activation in the regions of the brain that would normally be activated when physically performing the same actions? This study investigates whether brain activity after listening to a hearing-related noun and subsequently saying a hearing-related verb is significantly different from brain activity after listening to a hand-related or mouth-related noun and saying a hand-related or mouth-related action verb in the auditory area of the cortex. We studied ten surgical epilepsy patients, and using MRI scans, imaged their brains and compared gamma activity from chronically implanted subdural electrodes to obtain waveforms for hand-, mouth-, and hearing-related words for each electrode. Overall, none of the comparisons were significantly different. It is likely that all words, regardless of body part correlation, are processed the same in the auditory area as the patient listens and repeats a corresponding verb. It is also possible that the auditory area was not the ideal area to investigate how hearing action verbs prompt somatotopic processing, and perhaps identifying the location of the “auditory area” in the primary somatosensory cortex would be more helpful.