Brain Signatures of Embodied Semantics and Language: A Consensus Paper.

According to embodied theories (including embodied, embedded, extended, enacted, situated, and grounded approaches to cognition), language representation is intrinsically linked to our interactions with the world around us, which is reflected in specific brain signatures during language processing and learning. Moving on from the original rivalry of embodied vs. amodal theories, this consensus paper addresses a series of carefully selected questions that aim at determining and rather than motor and perceptual processes are involved in language processes.

Reduced syntactic recursion in spontaneous speech of Parkinson's disease patients.

Although characterized as a movement disorder, Parkinson's disease (PD) affects more than just the motor system. Within the heterogenous non-motor symptoms, language impairment is frequent but poorly understood beyond semantic processing. This study investigates the impact of PD on syntactic subordination in spontaneous language production.

Altered performance monitoring in Tourette Syndrome: an MEG investigation.

The error-related negativity (ERN) is an event-related potential component indexing processes of performance monitoring during simple stimulus-response tasks: the ERN is typically enhanced for error processing and conflicting response representations. Investigations in healthy participants and different patient groups have linked the ERN to the dopamine system and to prefrontal information processing. As in patients with Tourette Syndrome (TS) both dopamine release and prefrontal information processing are impaired, we hypothesized that performance monitoring would be altered, which was investigated with magnetencephalography (MEG).

Induced and Evoked Brain Activation Related to the Processing of Onomatopoetic Verbs.

Grounded cognition theory postulates that cognitive processes related to motor or sensory content are processed by brain networks involved in motor execution and perception, respectively. Processing words with auditory features was shown to activate the auditory cortex. Our study aimed at determining whether onomatopoetic verbs (e.

Neurophysiological mechanisms of perspective-taking: An MEG investigation of agency.

According to the embodied cognition framework, sensory and motor areas are recruited during language understanding through simulation processes. Behavioral and imaging findings point to a dependence of the latter on perspective-taking (e.g.

Auditory cortex sensitivity to the loudness attribute of verbs.

The auditory cortex was shown to be activated during the processing of words describing actions with acoustic features. The present study further examines whether processing visually presented action words characterized by different levels of loudness, i.e.

Action verb processing specifically modulates motor behaviour and sensorimotor neuronal oscillations.

Understanding action-related language recruits the brain's motor system and can interact with motor behaviour. The current study shows MEG oscillatory patterns during verb-motor priming. Hand and foot verbs were followed by hand or foot responses, with faster reaction times for congruent conditions.

A peek into premonitory urges in Tourette syndrome: Temporal evolution of neurophysiological oscillatory signatures.

Background: Tics are the core symptom of patients with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, yet the spatial-temporal dynamics of neural activity causing a tic remains to be determined.

Objective: Identification of cortical events preceding tic onset.

Methods: In twelve patients with Tourette syndrome we performed magnetoencephalography to trace the time course of beta oscillations (15-30 Hz) in motor cortical areas before tic onset.

Semantic discrimination impacts tDCS modulation of verb processing.

Motor cortex activation observed during body-related verb processing hints at simulation accompanying linguistic understanding. By exploiting the up- and down-regulation that anodal and cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) exert on motor cortical excitability, we aimed at further characterizing the functional contribution of the motor system to linguistic processing. In a double-blind sham-controlled within-subjects design, online stimulation was applied to the left hemispheric hand-related motor cortex of 20 healthy subjects.

Body-part specific interactions of action verb processing with motor behaviour.

The interaction of action-related language processing with actual movement is an indicator of the functional role of motor cortical involvement in language understanding. This paper describes two experiments using single action verb stimuli. Motor responses were performed with the hand or the foot.

Correction: Grasping Hand Verbs: Oscillatory Beta and Alpha Correlates of Action-Word Processing.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Increased beta rhythm as an indicator of inhibitory mechanisms in tourette syndrome.

Background: Inhibitory oscillatory mechanisms subserving tic compensation have been put forward in Tourette syndrome. Modulation of the beta rhythm (15-25 Hz) as the well-established oscillatory movement execution-inhibition indicator was tested during a cognitive-motor task in patients with Tourette syndrome.

Methods: Performing a Go/NoGo task, 12 patients with Tourette syndrome and 12 matched controls were recorded using whole-head magnetoencephalography.

Language-motor interference reflected in MEG beta oscillations.

The involvement of the brain's motor system in action-related language processing can lead to overt interference with simultaneous action execution. The aim of the current study was to find evidence for this behavioural interference effect and to investigate its neurophysiological correlates using oscillatory MEG analysis. Subjects performed a semantic decision task on single action verbs, describing actions executed with the hands or the feet, and abstract verbs.

Grasping hand verbs: oscillatory beta and alpha correlates of action-word processing.

The grounded cognition framework proposes that sensorimotor brain areas, which are typically involved in perception and action, also play a role in linguistic processing. We assessed oscillatory modulation during visual presentation of single verbs and localized cortical motor regions by means of isometric contraction of hand and foot muscles. Analogously to oscillatory activation patterns accompanying voluntary movements, we expected a somatotopically distributed suppression of beta and alpha frequencies in the motor cortex during processing of body-related action verbs.

Neuromagnetic hand and foot motor sources recruited during action verb processing.

The current study investigated sensorimotor involvement in the processing of verbs describing actions performed with the hands, feet, or no body part. Actual movements were used to identify neuromagnetic sources for hand and foot actions. These sources constrained the analysis of verb processing.

Distinct neural processes in grapheme-colour synaesthetes and semantic controls.

In synaesthetes, stimulation of one sensory pathway provokes a sensory experience (e.g. a colour concurrent) in a different sensory modality or sub-modality.

Synaesthetic perception of colour and visual space in a blind subject: an fMRI case study.

In spatial sequence synaesthesia (SSS) ordinal stimuli are perceived as arranged in peripersonal space. Using fMRI, we examined the neural bases of SSS and colour synaesthesia for spoken words in a late-blind synaesthete, JF. He reported days of the week and months of the year as both coloured and spatially ordered in peripersonal space; parts of the days and festivities of the year were spatially ordered but uncoloured.

Modality and variability of synesthetic experience.

In synesthesia, stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to additional, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. We here review previous surveys on this neurologically based phenomenon and report the results of 63 synesthetes who completed our Internet and paper questionnaire on synesthesia. In addition to asking for personal data and information on the participant's synesthesia, the questionnaire focused on the components of the inducer that elicit or modulate synesthesia.

Objective and subjective measures in recovery from a 35% carbon dioxide challenge.

Objectives: Because hyperventilation, dyspnea, and a feeling of choking are often core features of a panic attack, respiration has been one of the most widely studied physiological parameters in panic disorder (PD) patients. A respiratory subgroup of PD, with distinct etiological pathways, has also been suggested. Investigation of the recovery phase following a respiratory challenge may be a reliable way to establish respiratory impairment in PD patients.

Cognitive-behavioral group treatment for panic disorder with agoraphobia.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is well documented in the treatment of panic disorder with or without agoraphobia; however, little is known about the efficacy of group treatment. The purpose of this open study is to investigate the benefits of a combination of the major cognitive and behavioral techniques used in the several specific versions of CBT thus far developed, in a psychotherapeutic group approach for panic and agoraphobia. Seventy-six outpatients meeting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, third edition, revised (DSM-III-R; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) criteria for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia were included in the study.