A research group at Osaka Public University has revealed that restricting hand movements slows down the brain activity and verbalization that process the meaning of objects that can be moved by hand.This indicates that hand movements influence the processing of the meaning of objects.

 In cognitive psychology and cognitive science, there is a concept of "embodied cognition" that the meaning of words for humans is expressed through the interaction between the body and the environment.Embodied cognition is also attracting attention in artificial intelligence research as it may be effective when artificial intelligence learns the meaning of words.

 However, it has not been verified whether the brain activity that processes the meaning of words actually changes when body movement is restricted, or whether the processing of the meaning of words is inhibited.Therefore, in this study, we experimentally investigated how the brain responds to "words that describe things that can be moved by hand" by restricting the movement of the hand.

 In the experiment, we used a task in which we presented two words and asked them to answer which one was larger.As a result, when presented with "words representing things that can be manipulated by hand" (e.g., "cup" and "broom"), the interparietal sulcus and inferior parietal lobule of the left brain, which are responsible for semantic processing related to tools, etc. There was a significant difference in hand restraint in the activities ofOn the other hand, no significant effect of hand restraint was observed for ``words representing objects that cannot be manipulated by hand'' (eg, ``building'' and ``street lamp'').

 We also found that the speed of verbal response to the task was significantly affected only in the case of words representing manipulable objects.In other words, this suggests that hand restraints interfered with the semantic processing of hand-manipulable objects.

 The above results support the concept of embodied cognition, which states that the processing of the meaning of words and body movements are strongly linked.Since it is possible that the brain may memorize the movement of the body when processing the meaning of words, it is important to touch and manipulate things around us in learning the meaning of things. Yo.

Paper information:[Scientific Reports] Hand constraint reduces brain activity and affects the speed of verbal responses on semantic tasks

Osaka Metropolitan University

In April 2022, “Osaka Public University” will open with Osaka Prefectural University and Osaka City University as its parent organization.

Osaka Metropolitan University was opened in April 2022 by integrating Osaka Prefectural University and Osaka City University.Both are universities with a history of about 4 years, and are general universities with 140 faculties, and the number of students is about 12.It is the largest public university in Japan.A new "base of knowledge" that connects people, society, cities, and the world to the metropolis of Osaka […]

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