Publications

Publication details [#11767]

Moseley, Rachel and Friedemann Pulvermüller. 2014. Nouns, verbs, objects, actions, and abstractions: Local fMRI activity indexes semantics, not lexical categories. Brain & Language 132 : 28–42. 15 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Place, Publisher
Amsterdam: Elsevier

Abstract

This paper investigates the neurological basis of noun and verb processing. Verb processing is neurologically located to the frontal and middle temporal cortex of the brain, whereas noun processing is located to other temporal and parietal areas of the brain. This type of dissociation is based on the discrepancy between lexical category and semantic meaning. Specifically, verbs refer to actions, whereas nouns refer to objects. In order to test experimentally this type of dissociation, the study used fMRI scanning. Participants were asked to read categories of nouns and verbs. The results have shown that: i) there is a dissociation between lexical category and semantic meaning when the noun is abstract and the verb concrete and ii) there is not a dissociation between lexical category and semantic meaning when the noun and the verb are both concrete.