The role of semantic abstractness and perceptual category in processing speech accompanied by gestures.

ABSTRACT: Space and shape are distinct perceptual categories. In language, perceptual information can also be used to describe abstract semantic concepts like a "rising income" (space) or a "square personality" (shape). Despite being inherently concrete, co-speech gestures depicting space and shape can accompany concrete or abstract utterances. Here, we investigated the way that abstractness influences the neural processing of the perceptual categories of space and shape in gestures. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that the neural processing of perceptual categories is highly dependent on language context. In a two-factorial design, we investigated the neural basis for the processing of gestures containing shape (SH) and spatial information (SP) when accompanying concrete (c) or abstract (a) verbal u

SUBMITTER: Nagels A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3866656 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature