Concepts and action : where does the embodiment debate leave us?

The behavioural evidence of sensorimotor activity during conceptual processing, along with that from neurological research, ignited the debate around the extent to which concept representations are embodied or amodal. Such evidence continues to fuel the debate but it is open to interpretation as being consistent with a variety of the theoretical positions and so it is possible that further, similar evidence may not lead to its resolution. In this paper we propose that independent value accrues from following this line of research through the enhanced understanding of the factors that influence agents’ conceptual processing of action and how this interacts with the agent’s goals in real environments. This approach is in line with broad principles of embodied cognition and is worthy of pursuit regardless of what the results may (or may not) tell us about conceptual representation

INVESTIGATION OF EMBODIED LANGUAGE PROCESSING ON COMMAND-SWALLOW PERFORMANCE

In the command swallow condition, which is routinely employed during videofluoroscopic examination of swallowing, patients commonly are told to hold a bolus in their mouth until they are told to swallow. Both components of the command swallow, bolus hold and swallowing in response to a command, could influence the act of swallowing. The focus of the current study was to examine the linguistic influences of the verbal command on swallowing. In fact, the language induced motor facilitation theory suggests the linguistic processes associated with the verbal command should facilitate the voluntary component of swallowing. This study investigated whether language induced motor facilitation was evident under the command swallow condition as reflected in suprahyoid muscle activity measured by surface electromyography. During the experiment, 20 healthy young participants held a 5 ml liquid bolus in their mouth and swallowed the bolus after hearing 5 acoustic stimuli presented randomly: congruent action word (swallow), incongruent action word (cough), congruent pseudo-word (spallow), incongruent pseudo-word (pough), and non-verbal stimulus (1000 Hz pure-tone). Swallow latencies following the congruent action word were shorter than swallows following the non-verbal stimulus, indicating that suprahyoid muscle activity occurred earlier for following the word swallow than for the pure-tone. Longer latencies for the pseudo-words than real words also supported the language induced motor facilitation theory, but it was not clear whether the observed differences were due to reduced linguistic facilitation or longer processing-time associated with interference. Stronger support for the theory captured by lexical directionality was not evident when the words swallow and cough were compared. The facilitation effects of swallow-related action words may not have sufficient sensitivity and strength among effectors, and the incongruent word in the study may not have represented a true incongruent action against the act of swallowing. There also was no facilitation effect on peak suprahyoid muscle activity amplitude. The evidence from this study advances our understanding of the links between language and movement for behaviors that are not entirely under voluntary control. Linguistic inducement of swallowing could be useful as a swallow compensatory technique for patients with difficulty initiating oropharyngeal swallows including patients with Parkinson’s disease

Embodiment effects and language comprehension in Alzheimer's disease

It has been shown that when participants are asked to make sensibility judgments on sentences that describe a transfer of an object toward or away from their body, they are faster to respond when the response requires a movement in the same direction as the transfer described in the sentence. This phenomenon is known as the action compatibility effect (ACE). This study investigates whether the ACE exists for volunteers with Alzheimer's disease (AD), whether the ACE can facilitate language comprehension, and also whether the ACE can still be produced if the order of the two events is inverted, that is, whether overt movement can prime comprehension of transfer sentences. In Study 1, participants with AD, younger, and older adults were tested on an adaptation of the ACE Paradigm. In Study 2, the same paradigm was modified to include an arm movement that participants had to perform prior to sentence exposure on screen. In Study 1, young, older adults, and individuals with AD were faster to respond when the direction of the response movement matched the directionality implied by the sentence (ACE). In Study 2, no traditional ACE was found; participants were faster when the direction of the movement immediately preceding the sentence matched the directionality of the sentence. It was found that compatibility effects generated a relative advantage, that transfer schemata are easier to process, and that an ACE-like effect can be the result of mutual priming between language and movement. Results suggested preservation in AD of the neural systems for action engaged during language comprehension, and conditions under which comprehension in AD can be facilitated in real life may be identified