In line with this general view, the embodied theory of language ( Gallese and Lakoff, 2005 Glenberg, 2007 Gallese, 2008 Glenberg and Gallese, 2012) claims that the linguistic system re-uses the structures and the organization characterizing the motor system. Overall our results are in keeping with the embodied theory of language and suggest that understanding sentences expressing an action directed toward a tool drives a chained activation of the motor system.Īccording to the theory of re-use ( Anderson, 2010), evolution works in a conservative way, building on previously formed systems.
Instead, the functional and volumetric information were balanced for those motor chains that comprise at least an observational act (Experiment 1). Specifically, with the grasping chain aimed at using the tool, the functional motor information prevailed over the volumetric information, and vice versa with the grasping chain aimed at moving the tool (Experiment 2). More interestingly, we found that the motor information evoked by the noun was modulated by the specific motor-chain expressed by the preceding verbs. A primacy of the grasp-to-use motor chain over the other motor chains in priming the participants' performance was observed in both the experiments. They decided whether the tool mentioned in the sentence was the same as that displayed in a picture presented shortly after. The participants were presented with nouns of common tools preceded by a pair of verbs expressing grasping or observational motor chains (i.e., grasp-to-move, grasp-to-use, look-at-to-grasp, and look-at-to-stare).
This possibility stems from the embodied theory of language, according to which the linguistic system re-uses the structures of the motor system. Two experiments were carried out to investigate whether and how one important characteristic of the motor system, that is its goal-directed organization in motor chains, is reflected in language processing.
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