ACTICO

Conceptual processes with and without sensorimotor experience: what is gained and what is missed?

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Evidence of activation of sensorimotor circuits for action and perception during cognitive tasks, such as language understanding, has been used to challenge the “Cartesian” conception that mind and body are different entities to be studied as separate domains. However, the study of brain-damaged patients has shown that the integrity of sensorimotor processes is not necessary for language. Why would, then, there be activation of the sensorimotor system during language if that activation is not causally involved in the task? To explore this issue, we will investigate how motor processes relate to the language network in the brain, and what information is conveyed by motor processes in language. We will use trancranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to assess whether motor activity is temporally subsequent and causally determined by activity of language-processing areas, or is independent of it. We will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate activation patterns in the sensorimotor circuits of individuals with congenital deprivation of sensorimotor experience (i.e., amelics) during action-word comprehension, to define how action words are represented in the brain in the absence of sensorimotor experience. The conceptual design of this project takes advantage of the study of a special population, that has not been studied before in this field, and of modern techniques of analysis, such as fMRI and TMS. It has the potential to create a new line of research by establishing a bridge between different cognitive domains, and to impact conceptions in education and re-education by clarifying what sensorimotor experience adds to our conceptual ability and what is missed when it is lacking. Harvard University and CIMeC, University of Trento, will provide the ideal intellectual and technical environments to develop this project and improve significantly the scientific experience of the fellow for a successful career.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

The complexities involved in conceptual representation in the brain, such as action word processing, are yet to be clearly understood. EU funding supported an initiative that worked on elucidating this.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Recent studies have shown that brain structures involved in motor functions such as action planning and execution are also involved in higher-level cognitive tasks. The EU-funded project 'Conceptual processes with and without sensorimotor experience: What is gained and what is missed?' (ACTICO) worked on understanding how the brain processes words to represent actions and objects.

Scientists combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), non-invasive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and behavioural methodologies in healthy human adults to understand higher cognition. Besides visualisation of brain structures during verb processing, this development should help scientists in developing a coherent neurobiological model of language semantics.

Comprehensive reviews were undertaken to assess the current state of research on the connection between language-semantics processing in the brain and motor activity. The work led to two publications.

Scientists found that the temporal cortex is involved in abstract computation of words during verb processing. The motor cortex helps differentiate between action and non-action verbs to understand language semantics. Suppressing temporal cortex activity hampered the ability of the motor cortex to respond to words.

Behavioural studies on people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative motor neurone disease, revealed no impairment of conceptual representation of action in the brain. However, they displayed a specific impairment in performing non-motor tasks that require processing of low-level features of an action. This suggests that inter-individual differences may exist in language-semantics processing.

Experiments on infants aged 3-6 months who have not yet articulated speech sounds were conducted to assess their ability to differentiate between various speech sounds. Infants at 6 months could successfully categorise different sounds despite their inability to produce those sounds.

ACTICO developed a new protocol that combines TMS and fMRI protocols to study functional connectivity in the brain during higher-level cognitive tasks. Besides functional studies to elucidate the network dynamics in the brain, project findings could be used to retrain people with brain injuries.