Neural substrates of figurative language during natural speech perception: an fMRI study.

ABSTRACT: Many figurative expressions are fully conventionalized in everyday speech. Regarding the neural basis of figurative language processing, research has predominantly focused on metaphoric expressions in minimal semantic context. It remains unclear in how far metaphoric expressions during continuous text comprehension activate similar neural networks as isolated metaphors. We therefore investigated the processing of similes (figurative language, e.g., "He smokes like a chimney!") occurring in a short story. Sixteen healthy, male, native German speakers listened to similes that came about naturally in a short story, while blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) responses were measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). For the event-related analysis, similes were contrasted wi

SUBMITTER: Nagels A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3776934 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature