Publications

Publication details [#14666]

Gu, Jiexin, Fangfang Yu and Jinjun Wang. 2019. A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study: on Metaphorical Processes during Language Production. Contemporary Rhetoric 4 : 10–18. 9 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
Chinese
ISBN
16748026

Abstract

This paper explores the neural basis for the output of Chinese conventional metaphorical sentences compared with the output of semantically similar literal sentences, via functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) technology. The experimental results are as follows. First, the key brain areas including the left angular gyrus and the left middle temporal gyrus (BA39), cingulate gyrus (BA31), and the right cingulate gyrus and the right anterior cingulate cortex (BA32), the right superior temporal gyrus (BA39), the right parietal angular gyrus are activated for the output of Chinese conventional metaphorical sentences, compared with the output of the semantically similar literal sentences. Second, more brain areas are activated on the right hemisphere for the output of Chinese conventional metaphorical sentences, compared with the prior study of the output of English innovative metaphorical sentences. The results come to the following two conclusions. First, the output of conventional metaphor shares the neural basis partly with the output of innovative metaphor, and also a difference on neural basis exists between the two types of metaphorical output. Second, the Chinese metaphorical output cannot be done without the contribution of the right hemisphere, which also supports the Fine-Coarse Coding theory for metaphorical processing.