Dissociation between Semantic Representations for Motion and Action Verbs: Evidence from Patients with Left Hemisphere Lesions.

This multiple single case study contrasted left hemisphere stroke patients ( = 6) to healthy age-matched control participants ( = 15) on their understanding of action (e.g., holding, clenching) and motion verbs (e.

Perceptual decisions regarding object manipulation are selectively impaired in apraxia or when tDCS is applied over the left IPL.

This study evaluated whether apraxia can be understood as due to impaired motor representations or motor imagery necessary for appropriate object-use, imitation, and pantomime. The causal role of the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL), which is heavily implicated in apraxia, is also evaluated. These processes are appraised in light of the proposed ventro-dorsal sub-stream of the classic two visual pathway model, where perceptual information from the ventral stream and the dorsal action stream are integrated and essential for object manipulation.

Impaired Communication Between the Dorsal and Ventral Stream: Indications from Apraxia.

Patients with apraxia perform poorly when demonstrating how an object is used, particularly when pantomiming the action. However, these patients are able to accurately identify, and to pick up and move objects, demonstrating intact ventral and dorsal stream visuomotor processing. Appropriate object manipulation for skilled use is thought to rely on integration of known and visible object properties associated with "ventro-dorsal" stream neural processes.

Grasping spheres, not planets.

Memory for objects helps us to determine how we can most effectively and appropriately interact with them. This suggests a tightly coupled interplay between action and background knowledge. Three experiments demonstrate that grasping circumference can be affected by the size of a visual stimulus (Experiment 1), whether that stimulus appears to be graspable (Experiment 2), and the presence of a label that renders that object ungraspable (Experiment 3).

Motor resonance as a function of narrative time: further tests of the linguistic focus hypothesis.

Neuroimaging and behavioral studies have revealed involvement of the brain's motor system in language comprehension. The Linguistic-Focus Hypothesis [Taylor, L. J.

Motor resonance and linguistic focus.

Previous studies have demonstrated that verbal descriptions of actions activate compatible motor responses (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002; Zwaan & Taylor, 2006). The present study replicates previous findings showing that, within a sentence, such activation is localized on the verb that denotes the action. Moreover, motor resonance is found to yield to linguistic focus.

Inferences about action engage action systems.

Verbal descriptions of actions activate compatible motor responses [Glenberg, A. M., & Kaschak, M.

Seeing, acting, understanding: motor resonance in language comprehension.

Observing actions and understanding sentences about actions activates corresponding motor processes in the observer-comprehender. In 5 experiments, the authors addressed 2 novel questions regarding language-based motor resonance. The 1st question asks whether visual motion that is associated with an action produces motor resonance in sentence comprehension.