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.

The involvement of the motor cortex in language understanding has been intensively discussed in the framework of embodied cognition. Although some studies have provided evidence for the involvement of the motor cortex in different receptive language tasks, the role that it plays in language perception and understanding is still unclear. In the present study, we explored the degree of involvement of language and motor areas in a visually presented sentence comprehension task, modulated by language proficiency (L1: native language, L2: second language) and linguistic abstractness (literal, metaphorical, and abstract). Magnetoencephalography data were recorded from 26 late Chinese learners of English. A cluster-based permutation F test was performed on the amplitude of the source waveform for each motor and language region of interest (ROI). Results showed a significant effect of language proficiency in both language and motor ROIs, manifested as overall greater involvement of language ROIs (short insular gyri and planum polare of the superior temporal gyrus) in the L1 than the L2 during 300-500 ms, and overall greater involvement of motor ROI (central sulcus) in the L2 than the L1 during 600-800 ms. We interpreted the over-recruitment of the motor area in the L2 as a higher demand for cognitive resources to compensate for the inadequate engagement of the language network. In general, our results indicate a compensatory role of the motor cortex in L2 understanding.

Kemmerer\'s paper convincingly claims that the grounded cognition model (GCM) entails linguistic relativity. Here, we underline that tackling linguistic relativity and cultural differences is vital for GCM. First, it allows GCM to focus more on flexible rather than stable aspects of cognition. Second, it highlights the centrality of linguistic experience for human cognition. While GCM-inspired research underscored the similarity between linguistic and nonlinguistic concepts, it is now paramount to understand when and how language(s) influence knowledge. To this aim, we argue that linguistic variation might be particularly relevant for more abstract concepts-which are more debatable and open to revisions.

In this chapter, the literature concerning the dissociation between concrete and abstract words is reviewed, with a specific focus on the role of the temporal lobes. A number of studies have demonstrated the so-called \"concreteness effect,\" that is, the superior processing of concrete versus abstract words. However, some neuropsychological patients have been described with a reversal of concreteness effect, namely, a better performance with abstract than concrete words. Available data suggest that the most frequent causes of this reversed effect are herpes simplex encephalitis and semantic dementia, which typically affect bilaterally anterior temporal regions. Direct electrical stimulation of the left temporal pole further supports this correlation, while the neuroimaging literature is more controversial. In fact, data from neuroimaging studies show either that abstract and concrete noun processing at least partly relies on the activation of a common left-lateralized network, or that abstract word processing is supported by the activation of networks within the left inferior frontal gyrus and the middle temporal gyrus. In between abstract and concrete concepts are idioms, which are represented by concrete actions conveying abstract mental states and events. The involvement of the temporal lobes in processing this particular figure of language is discussed.

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This article provides an in-depth study of distributional measures for distinguishing between degrees of semantic abstraction. Abstraction is considered a \"central construct in cognitive science\" (Barsalou, 2003) and a \"process of information reduction that allows for efficient storage and retrieval of central knowledge\" (Burgoon et al., 2013). Relying on the distributional hypothesis, computational studies have successfully exploited measures of contextual co-occurrence and neighbourhood density to distinguish between conceptual semantic categorisations. So far, these studies have modeled semantic abstraction across lexical-semantic tasks such as ambiguity; diachronic meaning changes; abstractness vs. concreteness; and hypernymy. Yet, the distributional approaches target different conceptual types of semantic relatedness, and as to our knowledge not much attention has been paid to apply, compare or analyse the computational abstraction measures across conceptual tasks. The current article suggests a novel perspective that exploits variants of distributional measures to investigate semantic abstraction in English in terms of the abstract-concrete dichotomy (e.g., glory-banana) and in terms of the generality-specificity distinction (e.g., animal-fish), in order to compare the strengths and weaknesses of the measures regarding categorisations of abstraction, and to determine and investigate conceptual differences. In a series of experiments we identify reliable distributional measures for both instantiations of lexical-semantic abstraction and reach a precision higher than 0.7, but the measures clearly differ for the abstract-concrete vs. abstract-specific distinctions and for nouns vs. verbs. Overall, we identify two groups of measures, (i) frequency and word entropy when distinguishing between more and less abstract words in terms of the generality-specificity distinction, and (ii) neighbourhood density variants (especially target-context diversity) when distinguishing between more and less abstract words in terms of the abstract-concrete dichotomy. We conclude that more general words are used more often and are less surprising than more specific words, and that abstract words establish themselves empirically in semantically more diverse contexts than concrete words. Finally, our experiments once more point out that distributional models of conceptual categorisations need to take word classes and ambiguity into account: results for nouns vs. verbs differ in many respects, and ambiguity hinders fine-tuning empirical observations.

Patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) exhibit an aberrant perception and comprehension of abstract speech-gesture combinations associated with dysfunctional activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Recently, a significant deficit of speech-gesture mismatch detection was identified in SSD, but the underlying neural mechanisms have not yet been examined. A novel mismatch-detection fMRI paradigm was implemented manipulating speech-gesture abstractness (abstract/concrete) and relatedness (related/unrelated). During fMRI data acquisition, 42 SSD patients (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or other non-organic psychotic disorder [ICD-10: F20, F25, F28; DSM-IV: 295.X]) and 36 healthy controls were presented with short video clips of an actor reciting abstract or concrete sentences accompanied by either a semantically related or unrelated gesture. Participants indicated via button press whether they perceived each gesture as matching the speech content or not. Speech-gesture mismatch detection performance was significantly impaired in patients compared to controls. fMRI data analysis revealed that patients showed lower activation in bilateral frontal areas, including the IFG for all abstract > concrete speech-gesture pairs. In addition, they exhibited reduced engagement of the right supplementary motor area (SMA) and bilateral anterior cingulate cortices (ACC) for unrelated > related stimuli. We provide first evidence that impaired speech-gesture mismatch detection in SSD could be the result of dysfunctional activation of the SMA and ACC. Failure to activate the left IFG disrupts the integration of abstract speech-gesture combinations in particular. Future investigations should focus on brain stimulation of the SMA, ACC, and the IFG to improve communication and social functioning in SSD.

The avoidance theory of worry (Borkovec, Alcaine, & Behar, 2004) posits that the verbal-linguistic (versus imagery-based) nature of worry elicits abstract (versus concrete) processing, which inhibits affective responding and generates a host of negative consequences. Although suppression of worrisome thinking is maladaptive (Purdon, 1999), expression of worry using vivid imagery may increase concreteness of worrisome thinking and facilitate more adaptive emotional responding. The present study examined whether the valence, content, and expression of mentation impacts concreteness of thought. Participants (N = 62) were randomly assigned to verbalize their thoughts while engaging in either verbal-linguistic- or imagery-based mentation about both worrisome and neutral topics. Participants were also randomly assigned to engage in a 5-min period of suppressing or expressing the target stimuli before engaging in 5-min of freely expressing the targets. Verbalizations of mental content were coded for level of abstractness/concreteness. For neutral stimuli, imagery-based mentation led to greater concreteness than did verbal-linguistic mentation; however, for worrisome stimuli, imagery-based mentation did not enhance concreteness. In addition, for neutral (but not worrisome) stimuli, an initial period of suppression was associated with increased concreteness during subsequent expression. Imagery-based mentation about worrisome stimuli may not enhance concreteness; moreover, unlike suppression of neutral stimuli, suppression of worrisome stimuli may maintain, rather than ameliorate, abstractness of thought.

In an iconicity judgement task, participants were asked whether word pairs were iconic (e.g., nose-tongue; joy-sorrow) or reverse-iconic (e.g., tongue-nose; sorrow-joy), and an advantage for abstract word pairs (i.e., joy-sorrow) was found. Malhi and Buchanan proposed that this reverse concreteness, or abstractness, effect was the result of participants taking a visualisation/imagining (time-costly) approach towards the concrete word pairs and an emotional/intuitive (time-efficient) approach towards the abstract word pairs. This study tested this proposal by asking participants questions about strategy use (Experiment 1). In the forced-choice questions, all participants reported using a visualisation/imagining approach towards the concrete word pairs and most participants reported using an emotional/intuitive approach towards the abstract word pairs. In the open-ended responses, visual-spatial reasoning and real-life experience emerged as themes for the concrete word pairs and social norms and values emerged as themes for the abstract word pairs, adding to our understanding of the grounding of abstract words. In Experiment 2, participants were supplied with pictures as an aid to visualisation with the expectation that this would reduce the time required for concrete word processing. Supplying pictures made participants faster and more accurate at completing the task. Experiment 3 manipulated the type of visual aid by also supplying pictures that did not match the orientation of the word pairs. Participants were only more accurate when the pictures were in the correct and iconic spatial arrangement. A flexible abstractness and concreteness effects (FACE) theory is proposed which integrates symbolic and embodied accounts and introduces constructs such as direct and constrained imageability for concrete words and indirect and free imageability for abstract words.

Previous research has demonstrated that individuals are more likely to engage in imitation of movements when the observed behavior is psychologically proximal. The present research tested whether movement imitation of proximal behavior is increased even when imitation is in conflict with own task goals. Participants completed a connect-the-dots task that was presented as either a speed task or an accuracy task. Additionally, participants watched a video of a person modeling the solution to the task in a way that contradicted the stated goal. Temporal distance to the model was manipulated in Experiment 1. Participants imitated the model\'s way to solve the task more when the model was proximal and followed the task goal comparably more when the model was distant. Experiment 2 replicated the effect with a direct mindset manipulation and additionally ruled out an alternative explanation (i.e., a stronger goal focus when thinking abstractly).