Publicação
The neural basis of intransitive gestures: an fMRI study
| Resumo: | Intransitive gestures are categorized as mental or instrumental, as they are performed close or far from the body. In the present study, we investigated the neural correlates of intransitive gestures processing. In addition, we explored the relationship between cognitive and praxis skills by considering the role of theory of mind and verbal abilities in intransitive mental and instrumental gestures, respectively. Using an event-related fMRI paradigm we assessed the brain activation of 12 healthy participants that were required to perform a gesture recognition task. Participants also performed theory of mind and verbal fluency tasks. The fMRI analysis showed that intransitive mental gestures activated frontal and temporal brain areas, whereas intransitive instrumental gestures activated the frontal, temporal, parietal and insular cortex. Furthermore, we found that when processing intransitive mental gestures, a stronger activation on middle frontal gyrus was associated with better performance on the theory of mind task. In contrast, for intransitive instrumental gestures, a stronger activation of the inferior frontal gyrus was associated with a better performance on the language task. Our findings suggest that the space in which gestures are performed influence the brain activation, but also highlight the role of cognitive abilities in intransitive gestures processing. |
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| Autores principais: | Vieira, Ana Rita Gonçalves |
| Assunto: | Intransitive gestures Instrumental gestures Mental gestures Theory of mind Language Gestos intransitivos Gestos mentais Gestos instrumentais Teoria da mente Linguagem Ciências Sociais::Psicologia |
| Ano: | 2018 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso restrito |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade do Minho |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho |
| Resumo: | Intransitive gestures are categorized as mental or instrumental, as they are performed close or far from the body. In the present study, we investigated the neural correlates of intransitive gestures processing. In addition, we explored the relationship between cognitive and praxis skills by considering the role of theory of mind and verbal abilities in intransitive mental and instrumental gestures, respectively. Using an event-related fMRI paradigm we assessed the brain activation of 12 healthy participants that were required to perform a gesture recognition task. Participants also performed theory of mind and verbal fluency tasks. The fMRI analysis showed that intransitive mental gestures activated frontal and temporal brain areas, whereas intransitive instrumental gestures activated the frontal, temporal, parietal and insular cortex. Furthermore, we found that when processing intransitive mental gestures, a stronger activation on middle frontal gyrus was associated with better performance on the theory of mind task. In contrast, for intransitive instrumental gestures, a stronger activation of the inferior frontal gyrus was associated with a better performance on the language task. Our findings suggest that the space in which gestures are performed influence the brain activation, but also highlight the role of cognitive abilities in intransitive gestures processing. |
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