Reading taste metaphors recruits brain regions
associated with taste processing
Francesca M.M. Citron1,3, Evgeniya Kirilina2 & Adele E. Goldberg3,1
1Cluster
of Excellence “Languages of Emotion”, Freie Universität Berlin, 2Dahlem Institute for the Neuroimaging of Emotion, Freie Universität Berlin, 3Linguistics
Program, Princeton University, NJ
Results
Embodied metaphors
Conceptual knowledge is represented in modal systems derived from
perception (Barsalou, 1999). Abstract knowledge is represented by means
of associations with concrete domains (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) that are
grounded in somato-sensory representations (Pulvermueller, 1999). For
example, reading idioms that contain action words or texture metaphors
recruits sensory-motor and texture-related brain regions, respectively
(Boulenger et al., 2009; Lacey et al., 2012).
What about taste metaphors? Given the paucity of neuroimaging studies
supporting an embodied account, we decided to investigate this domain.
(a)
(b)
Our Taste Metaphors
37 German metaphorical sentences and 37 literal counterparts, matched
for length, frequency, familiarity, imageability, emotional valence and
arousal, presented in written form.
Metaphors
Literal counterparts
Sie bekam ein süßes Kompliment
Sie bekam ein nettes Kompliment
She received a sweet compliment
She received a nice compliment
Sie versauerte auf der Wartebank
Sie langweilte sich auf der Wartebank
The long waiting let her become sour
The long waiting let her become bored
(c)
Figure 1. Main clusters of activation for the contrast metaphors > literal
sentences. FEW- correction was applied at the cluster level.
(a) The left frontal cluster, including the lateral OFC (MNI coordinates -42 21 15; BA 11);
(b) The frontal operculum (MNI -42 21 -15, BA 47), also included in the left
frontal cluster of activation;
A priori ROIs
confirmed
involvement of left
primary and
secondary gustatory
cortices for
metaphors > literal
sentences and for
single taste words >
non-taste words.
No activations in the
opposite contrasts
(for either literal
sentences or nontaste words) were
found.
Der Abbruch war sehr bitter für ihn Der Abbruch war sehr schlimm für ihn
The break up was very bitter for him
The break up was very bad for him
Er bekam eine gesalzene Rechnung Er bekam eine hohe Rechnung
He received a salty bill
He received a high bill
Prediction: comprehension of taste metaphors will activate primary and
secondary gustatory areas, i.e., lateral orbito-frontal cortex (lOCF), frontal
operculum and anterior insula (AIC) more strongly than literal sentences.
To make sure these predicted activations are due to taste and not
metaphoricity per se, we presented all critical words in isolation at the
end of experiment, e.g., “sweet” in isolation will refer to the actual taste
and not to kindness.
Methods
Participants: 26 native German speakers (M 27 years, SD 5; 19 women)
Task: Silent reading with occasional comprehension questions on filler
Study
- Results
trials; 2 1
runs
with sentences, 1 final run with single words
fMRI parameters:
• 3-Tesla scanner, 32-channel head matrix coil, TR 2.5 sec
• 5 different TE (7.4; 17.2; 27; 37; 47 ms) to optimise detection of OFC
• 37 slices per volume
• Stimulus order and timings were optimised with OPTSEQ2 (Dale, 1999)
• Each sentence was presented for 4 sec, each word for 1.5 sec
• Baseline: (sequences of) hash mark strings ## ######## #####
• Total duration: about an hour; each of the 3 runs lasted about 8 min
• Magnitude and phase images (field map) as well as T1 were acquired
• SPM8 was used for data analysis
• Contrasts between metaphors and literal sentences in both directions
were performed as well as between taste and non-taste single words
• Full-brain analyses; a priori region of interest (ROI) analyses on lOFC,
frontal operculum and AIC; post-hoc ROI analyses on the amygdala
References
Barsalou, L.W. (1999) Perceptual symbol systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22,
577-660.
Barros-Loscertales, A., et al., (2012) Reading sald activates gustatory brain regions:
fMRI evidence for semantic grounding in a novel sensory modality. Cerebral Cortex, 22,
2554-2563.
Discussion
The involvement of primary and secondary gustatory cortices during
processing of taste metaphors compared with their literal counterparts
supports the idea that abstract, metaphorical concepts are grounded in
sensory-motor/perceptual representations.
The same areas were active in response to single, taste-related words,
e.g., sweet, biter, salty, compared with non-taste related words, e.g., nice,
bad, expensive, confirming that these activations are due to taste and not
metaphoricity.
These results are in line with similar findings on action and texture
metaphors (Boulenger et al., 2009; Lacey et al., 2012) as well as on single,
taste-related words (Barros-Loscertales et al., 2012), and extend them to
an additional source domain, namely taste.
Boulenger, V., Hauk, O., & Pulvermueller, F. (2009). Grasping ideas with the motor
system: Semantic somatotopy in idiom comprehension. Cerebral Cortex, 19, 19051914.
Dale, A.M. (1999) Optimal experimental design for event-related fMRI. Human Brain
Mapping, 8, 109-114.
Lacey, S., Stilla, R., & Sathian, K. (2012) Metaphorically feeling: Comprehending textural
metaphors anctivates somatosensory cortex. Brain and Language, 120, 416-421.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Pulvermueller, F. (1999) Words in the brain's language. Behavioral and Brain Sciences,
22, 253-336.