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We performed three experiments to investigate whether adjectives can modulate the sensorimotor activation elicited by nouns. In Experiment 1, nouns of graspable objects were used as stimuli. Participants had to decide if each noun referred to a natural or artifact, by performing either a precision or a power reach-to-grasp movement. Response grasp could be compatible or incompatible with the grasp typically used to manipulate the objects to which the nouns referred. The results revealed faster reaction times (RTs) in compatible than in incompatible trials. In Experiment 2, the nouns were combined with adjectives expressing either disadvantageous information about object graspability (e.g., "sharp") or information about object color (e.g., "reddish"). No difference in RTs between compatible and incompatible conditions was found when disadvantageous adjectives were used. Conversely, a compatibility effect occurred when color adjectives were combined with nouns referring to natural objects. Finally, in Experiment 3 the nouns were combined with adjectives expressing tactile or shape proprieties of the objects (e.g., long or smooth). Results revealed faster RTs in compatible than in incompatible condition for both noun categories. Taken together, our findings suggest that adjectives can shape the sensorimotor activation elicited by nouns of graspable objects, highlighting that language simulation goes beyond the single-word level.

Objective: This study investigated whether children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can imagine object directed actions similarly to their typically developed (TD) peers. Study design: We tested the ability to imagine goal directed actions in children with ASD (n = 18) and TD (n = 18) peers by means of VMIQ-2 questionnaire and a novel behavioral task, in which children were requested to imagine some daily actions, after seeing them through videoclips presented on a computer screen. Observed actions lasted 4 s and children were requested to follow the same time course during imagination. During this motor imagery (MI) task, children were interrupted at a specific timepoint (e.g., at 1.5 s) from the beginning of the task. Afterwards, they had to select one of two frames extracted from the videoclips: one showed the correct timepoint at which the imagined action was stopped, the other depicted an earlier or later timepoint. Children had to press the key associated to the correct frame to provide their responses. Results: Both groups performed similarly in the questionnaire and in the novel MI task, where they showed the same error rate. Errors distribution suggests that all children exploited a similar strategy to solve the task, being errors mainly distributed in judging the later frame. Conclusion: These findings support the view that children with ASD can imagine actions similarly to their TD peers. These results do not fully support the Broken Mirror Hypothesis and may encourage the use of MI as a cognitive strategy in the rehabilitation of autism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is experimental evidence that the brain systems involved in action execution also play a role in action observation and understanding. Recently, it has been suggested that the sensorimotor system is also involved in language processing. Supporting results are slower response times and weaker motorrelated MEG Beta band power suppression in semantic decision tasks on single action verbs labels when the stimulus and the motor response involve the same effector. Attenuated power suppression indicates decreased cortical excitability and consequent decreased readiness to act. The embodied approach forwards that the simultaneous involvement of the sensorimotor system in the processing of the linguistic content and in the planning of the response determines this language-motor interference effect. Here, in a combined behavioral and MEG study we investigated to what extent the processing of actions visually presented (i.e., pictures of actions) and verbally described (i.e., verbs in written words) share common neural mechanisms. The findings demonstrated that, whether an action is experienced visually or verbally, its processing engages the sensorimotor system in a comparable way. These results provide further support to the embodied view of semantic processing, suggesting that this process is independent from the modality of presentation of the stimulus, including language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed at assessing whether children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) can imagine object directed actions similarly to their normally developed peers. We asked children with CP (n = 12) and paired healthy controls (n = 12) to imagine in first person perspective eight daily actions, after observing them through videoclips presented on a computer screen. During motor imagery (MI) children were interrupted at a specific timepoint (e.g., at 2.5 s) from the start. Two frames extracted from the videoclips were then presented on the screen. One of the two depicted the correct timepoint at which the imagined action was interrupted, while the other represented an earlier or later timepoint. Children had to respond by pressing the key associated to the correct frame. Children also underwent VMIQ-2 questionnaire. Both groups performed similarly in the questionnaire and in the requested task, where they showed the same error rate. Errors mainly concerned the later frame, suggesting a similar strategy to solve the task in the two groups. The results support the view that children with CP can imagine actions similarly to their normally developed peers. This encourages the use of MI as a rehabilitative tool in children with motor impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well‐accepted that processing observed actions involves at some extent the same neural mechanisms responsible for action execution. More recently, it has been forwarded that also the processing of verbs expressing a specific motor content is subserved by the neural mechanisms allowing individuals to perform the content expressed by that linguistic material. This view is also known as embodiment and contrasts with a more classical approach to language processing that considers it as amodal. In the present study, we used a go/no‐go paradigm, in which participants were requested to respond to real words and pictures and refrain from responding when presented stimuli were pseudowords and scrambled images. Real stimuli included pictures depicting hand‐ and foot‐related actions and verbs expressing hand‐ and foot‐related actions. We, therefore, directly compared the modulation of hand motor responses during the observation of actions and the presentation of verbs, expressing actions in the same category. The results have shown that participants gave slower hand motor responses during the observation of hand actions and the processing of hand‐related verbs as than observed foot actions and related verbs. These findings support embodiment showing that whatever the modality of presentation (observed action or verb), the modulation of hand motor responses was similar, thus suggesting that processing seen actions and related verbs shares common mechanisms most likely involving the motor system and the underlying motor experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Action Observation Treatment is a novel rehabilitation approach exploiting a neurophysiological mechanism that allows one to recruit the neural structures sub-serving action execution during the mere observation of those same actions. Action Observation Treatment is effective in the rehabilitation of several neurological diseases. In this pilot study, we used Action Observation Treatment in a telerehabilitation setting in children with Cerebral Palsy. Ten children with Cerebral Palsy, aged 5–12 years, entered the study. They followed the Action Observation Treatment rehabilitation program at home with remote supervision by a child neurologist located at the hospital. Outcome measures were the scores at the Melbourne Assessment of Unilateral Upper Limb Function Scale and the Assisting Hand Assessment. Scores obtained after treatment and at a two months' follow-up significantly differed from baseline and overlapped those obtained in randomized controlled studies carried out in a conventional setting. Action Observation Treatment is therefore a promising approach that can be used on a large scale in a telerehabilitation setting. Tele-rehabilitation has the potential to enhance early intervention service provision for children with Cerebral Palsy. Action Observation Treatment has the potential to become a routine approach in a telerehabilitation setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To perform a preliminary test of a new rehabilitation treatment (FIT-SAT), based on mirror mechanisms, for gracile muscles after smile surgery. Method. A pre- and postsurgery longitudinal design was adopted to study the efficacy of FIT-SAT. Four patients with bilateral facial nerve paralysis (Moebius syndrome) were included. They underwent two surgeries with free muscle transfers, one year apart from each other. The side of the face first operated on was rehabilitated with the traditional treatment, while the second side was rehabilitated with FIT-SAT. The FIT-SAT treatment includes video clips of an actor performing a unilateral or a bilateral smile to be imitated (FIT condition). In addition to this, while smiling, the participants close their hand in order to exploit the overlapped cortical motor representation of the hand and the mouth, which may facilitate the synergistic activity of the two effectors during the early phases of recruitment of the transplanted muscles (SAT). The treatment was also aimed at avoiding undesired movements such as teeth grinding. Discussion. Results support FIT-SAT as a viable alternative for smile rehabilitation after free muscle transfer. We propose that the treatment potentiates the effect of smile observation by activating the same neural structures responsible for the execution of the smile and therefore by facilitating its production. Closing of the hand induces cortical recruitment of hand motor neurons, recruiting the transplanted muscles, and reducing the risk of associating other unwanted movements such as teeth clenching to the smile movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In stimulus-response compatibility tasks, performance is better when the handle of an object is oriented on the same side of the response than when the handle is oriented on the opposite side. Two major alternative accounts, the motor affordance and spatial accounts, have been proposed to explain this handle-hand compatibility effect. In two experiments, we tested between these two accounts by administering a go/no-go task to right-handed participants. Handled objects presented on a touchscreen were used as stimuli. Half of the participants had to reach-to-touch the stimuli by using their dominant hand, the other half by using their nondominant hand. Liftoff times (LTs), movement times (MTs) and spatial coordinates of the movement endpoints were recorded. Results from the LTs and MTs analyses showed no evidence of handle-hand compatibility effects. In contrast, the analyses of the spatial coordinates revealed that participants' touches were shifted more laterally towards the handle when the handles were oriented on the same side of the responding hand (Experiments 1 and 2). Furthermore, the right-hand touches landed higher (towards the handle) than the left-hand touches, especially when the vertical object dimension was particularly salient (Experiment 1). Overall, these results are in line with the activation of hand motor programs to reach and grasp the object as predicted by the motor account, at least for the right/dominant hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current literature supports the notion that the recognition of objects, when visually presented, is sub-served by neural structures different from those responsible for the semantic processing of their nouns. However, embodiment foresees that processing observed objects and their verbal labels should share similar neural mechanisms. In a combined behavioral and MEG study, we compared the modulation of motor responses and cortical rhythms during the processing of graspable natural objects and tools, either verbally or pictorially presented. Our findings demonstrate that conveying meaning to an observed object or processing its noun similarly modulates both motor responses and cortical rhythms; being natural graspable objects and tools differently represented in the brain, they affect in a different manner both behavioral and MEG findings, independent of presentation modality. These results provide experimental evidence that neural substrates responsible for conveying meaning to objects overlap with those where the object is represented, thus supporting an embodied view of semantic processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neural mechanisms subserving the processing of abstract concepts remain largely debated. Even within the embodiment theoretical framework, most authors suggest that abstract concepts are coded in a linguistic propositional format, although they do not completely deny the role of sensorimotor and emotional experiences in coding it. To our knowledge, only one recent proposal puts forward that the processing of concrete and abstract concepts relies on the same mechanisms, with the only difference being in the complexity of the underlying experiences. In this paper, we performed a meta-analysis using the Activation Likelihood Estimates (ALE) method on 33 functional neuroimaging studies that considered activations related to abstract and concrete concepts. The results suggest that (1) concrete and abstract concepts share the recruitment of the temporo-fronto-parietal circuits normally involved in the interactions with the physical world, (2) processing concrete concepts recruits fronto-parietal areas better than abstract concepts, and (3) abstract concepts recruit Broca's region more strongly than concrete ones. Based on anatomical and physiological evidence, Broca's region is not only a linguistic region mainly devoted to speech production, but it is endowed with complex motor representations of different biological effectors. Hence, we propose that the stronger recruitment of this region for abstract concepts is expression of the complex sensorimotor experiences underlying it, rather than evidence of a purely linguistic format of its processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]