ACTIONCONCEPTS

On the conceptual representation of actions

Coordinatore	UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA    more  Organization address address: PLACA DE LA MERCE 10-12 city: BARCELONA postcode: 8002 contact info Titolo: Ms. Nome: Eva Cognome: Martín García Email: send email Telefono: +34 93 542 21 40 Fax: +34 93 542 14 40
Nazionalità Coordinatore	Spain [ES]
Totale costo	223˙669 €
EC contributo	223˙669 €
Programma	FP7-PEOPLE Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)
Code Call	FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IOF
Funding Scheme	MC-IOF
Anno di inizio	2011
Periodo (anno-mese-giorno)	2011-10-03   -   2014-10-02

 Partecipanti

#	participant	country	role	EC contrib. [€]
1	UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA  Organization address address: PLACA DE LA MERCE 10-12 city: BARCELONA postcode: 8002 contact info Titolo: Ms. Nome: Eva Cognome: Martín García Email: send email Telefono: +34 93 542 21 40 Fax: +34 93 542 14 40	ES (BARCELONA)	coordinator	223˙669.60

Mappa

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'One question that has long captured the interest of philosophers, cognitive psychologists and linguists is how our brain mediates the knowledge we have about the world (i.e., concepts). The importance of this question is that concepts permit us to bring meaning to our experiences; they are core to language and nonverbal behavior and their impairment after brain damage generates significant disability. Previous studies have mostly focused on object concepts (e.g., animals, tools, etc.) rather than action concepts (i.e., to run, to think, etc.). In our view, exploring our conceptual representations of actions is fundamental for obtaining a more complete picture of how the brain mediates our knowledge of the world. In this project we use the functional magnetic resonance imaging technique (fMRI) with healthy individuals as a tool for addressing two controversial questions in the field. First, we will examine whether a differential representation of action and object concepts exists in a particular brain region (the posterior-lateral-temporal cortex- PLTC). In particular, we will try to demonstrate that the PLTC subserves the representation of actions relative to objects, and that this is due to a conceptual (action vs. object) rather than a grammatical (verb vs. noun) distinction (Experiment 1). Then, we will examine whether the PLTC is specialized in representing action concepts to the extent that it differentially responds to homophone words marked as verbs (she drinks) relative those marked as nouns (these drinks; Experiment 2). Second, we will determine the nature of action concepts by examining whether they are represented in an abstract manner (Experiment 3). If so, we will investigate whether the amount of motion information carried by an action (e.g., run vs. think) influences how these abstract representations are organized in the brain (Experiment 4).'

Introduzione (Teaser)

EU-funded research addressed an important open question in cognitive processing, namely the conceptual representation of action. Insight into brain regions involved and the types of information they process will support restoration of function.