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Thesis

French

ID: <

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11794/28253

>

Where these data come from
Involvement of the engine system in the treatment of the action language: modulator factors of the engine response

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the nature of the motor response during comprehension of action language has been hotly debated in the neuroscientific community. The role that it might play in the semantic processing of action language is at the heart of the debate. While, some theoretical models defend the view of a strong embodiment of language, which translates in a critical implication of the motor system in semantic processes of action language, others are firmly opposed to this view and defend a computational approach of the semantic system, which is considered to be abstract and disembodied. Other models, which are more moderate in their theoretical views, are interested in characterizing the influence of context on the motor response during action language processing. Linguistic and motor factors have been shown to modulate this motor response. The main objective of this thesis is to characterize some of these modulatory factors: semantic polarity, individual abilities in motor imagery and motor execution, and cortical structure. The linguistic modulatory factor that has been studied the most is semantic polarity (i.e. the affirmative/negative valence), but many aspects of this factor have not been uncovered yet. Using electromyography (EMG), Study 1 measures the influence of interacting semantic polarities within an action sentence on the motor response. Although the relation between action language processing and motor imagery on the one hand, and motor execution on the other, have been studied in the past, the influence of interindividual differences in motor imagery and execution on the involvement of the motor system in action language processing remains unknown. This question is the focus of Study 2, which measures the involvement of the supplementary motor area (SMA) and the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) in action language processing as a function of motor imagery and motor execution abilities, via a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) protocol. Finally, behaviors can be associated with structural characteristics of cortical areas such as cortical volume, cortical surface, cortical thickness and gyrification, Study 3 investigates the relation between the involvement of the SMA in action language processing (observed in Study 2) and its structural characteristics using surface-based morphometry (SBM).

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