Concepts in context: Processing mental state concepts with internal or external focus involves different neural systems.

ABSTRACT: According to embodied cognition theories, concepts are contextually situated and grounded in neural systems that produce experiential states. This view predicts that processing mental state concepts recruits neural regions associated with different aspects of experience depending on the context in which people understand a concept. This neuroimaging study tested this prediction using a set of sentences that described emotional (e.g., fear, joy) and nonemotional (e.g., thinking, hunger) mental states with internal focus (i.e., focusing on bodily sensations and introspection) or external focus (i.e., focusing on expression and action). Consistent with our predictions, data suggested that the inferior frontal gyrus, a region associated with action representation, was engaged more by external

SUBMITTER: Oosterwijk S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4405466 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature