Neural correlates of locative prepositions

Matthijs L. Noordzij; Sebastiaan F.W. Neggers; Nick F. Ramsey; Albert Postma

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.12.022

Neural correlates of locative prepositions

Matthijs L. Noordzij, Sebastiaan F.W. Neggers, Nick F. Ramsey, Albert Postma

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic

44 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Locative prepositions might be special linguistic modifiers because they form a natural link between verbal and visual-spatial information. In the present fMRI study we found evidence that understanding categorical spatial relations expressed in language with locative prepositions such as “to the left of” and “to the right of” were reliably associated with cerebral activity in the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) located in the left inferior parietal lobe. The higher activity associated with spatial as compared to non-spatial sentences in this region was not dependent on the context (verbal or visual-spatial) in which the sentence was read. Therefore, the function of this activity appears to be to create a general, amodal representation of locative prepositions that allow for flexible comparisons to either verbal or visual-spatial material.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1576-1580
Number of pages	5
Journal	Neuropsychologia
Volume	46
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.12.022
Publication status	Published - 2008
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

EC Grant Agreement nr.: FP6/12959
Spatial language
fMRI
Visual
Verbal

Access to Document

10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.12.022

Cite this

@article{5f733a87971b44268466e15fbb45240c,

title = "Neural correlates of locative prepositions",

abstract = "Locative prepositions might be special linguistic modifiers because they form a natural link between verbal and visual-spatial information. In the present fMRI study we found evidence that understanding categorical spatial relations expressed in language with locative prepositions such as “to the left of” and “to the right of” were reliably associated with cerebral activity in the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) located in the left inferior parietal lobe. The higher activity associated with spatial as compared to non-spatial sentences in this region was not dependent on the context (verbal or visual-spatial) in which the sentence was read. Therefore, the function of this activity appears to be to create a general, amodal representation of locative prepositions that allow for flexible comparisons to either verbal or visual-spatial material.",

keywords = "EC Grant Agreement nr.: FP6/12959, Spatial language, fMRI, Visual, Verbal",

author = "Noordzij, {Matthijs L.} and Neggers, {Sebastiaan F.W.} and Ramsey, {Nick F.} and Albert Postma",

year = "2008",

doi = "10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.12.022",

language = "English",

volume = "46",

pages = "1576--1580",

journal = "Neuropsychologia",

issn = "0028-3932",

publisher = "Elsevier",

number = "5",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Neural correlates of locative prepositions

AU - Noordzij, Matthijs L.

AU - Neggers, Sebastiaan F.W.

AU - Ramsey, Nick F.

AU - Postma, Albert

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - Locative prepositions might be special linguistic modifiers because they form a natural link between verbal and visual-spatial information. In the present fMRI study we found evidence that understanding categorical spatial relations expressed in language with locative prepositions such as “to the left of” and “to the right of” were reliably associated with cerebral activity in the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) located in the left inferior parietal lobe. The higher activity associated with spatial as compared to non-spatial sentences in this region was not dependent on the context (verbal or visual-spatial) in which the sentence was read. Therefore, the function of this activity appears to be to create a general, amodal representation of locative prepositions that allow for flexible comparisons to either verbal or visual-spatial material.

AB - Locative prepositions might be special linguistic modifiers because they form a natural link between verbal and visual-spatial information. In the present fMRI study we found evidence that understanding categorical spatial relations expressed in language with locative prepositions such as “to the left of” and “to the right of” were reliably associated with cerebral activity in the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) located in the left inferior parietal lobe. The higher activity associated with spatial as compared to non-spatial sentences in this region was not dependent on the context (verbal or visual-spatial) in which the sentence was read. Therefore, the function of this activity appears to be to create a general, amodal representation of locative prepositions that allow for flexible comparisons to either verbal or visual-spatial material.

KW - EC Grant Agreement nr.: FP6/12959

KW - Spatial language

KW - fMRI

KW - Visual

KW - Verbal

U2 - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.12.022

DO - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.12.022

M3 - Article

VL - 46

SP - 1576

EP - 1580

JO - Neuropsychologia

JF - Neuropsychologia

SN - 0028-3932

IS - 5

ER -

Neural correlates of locative prepositions

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this