Abstract：
Words, unlike images, are symbolic representations. The associative details inherent within a word\'s meaning and the visual imagery it generates, are inextricably connected to the way words are processed and represented. It is well recognised that the hippocampus associatively binds components of a memory to form a lasting representation, and here we show that the hippocampus is especially sensitive to abstract word processing. Using fMRI during recognition, we found that the increased abstractness of words produced increased hippocampal activation regardless of memory outcome. Interestingly, word recollection produced hippocampal activation regardless of word content, while the parahippocampal cortex was sensitive to concreteness of word representations, regardless of memory outcome. We reason that the hippocampus has assumed a critical role in the representation of uncontextualized abstract word meaning, as its information-binding ability allows the retrieval of the semantic and visual associates that, when bound together, generate the abstract concept represented by word symbols. These insights have implications for research on word representation, memory, and hippocampal function, perhaps shedding light on how the human brain has adapted to encode and represent abstract concepts.
摘要：
单词,与图像不同，是象征性的表示。一个词的含义和它产生的视觉图像中固有的联想细节，与单词的处理和表示方式密不可分。众所周知，海马体与记忆的组成部分相关联以形成持久的表示，在这里，我们表明海马体对抽象文字处理特别敏感。在识别过程中使用功能磁共振成像，我们发现,无论记忆结果如何,词汇抽象性的增加都会增加海马的激活.有趣的是,无论单词内容如何，单词回忆都会产生海马激活，虽然海马旁皮层对单词表示的具体性很敏感，不管记忆结果如何。我们认为海马体在非语境化抽象单词含义的表示中发挥了关键作用，因为它的信息绑定能力允许检索语义和视觉关联，当捆绑在一起时，生成由单词符号表示的抽象概念。这些见解对单词表示的研究有意义，记忆,和海马功能，也许揭示了人类大脑如何适应编码和表示抽象概念。
