Abstract
The purpose of this study was to delineate the neural pathways involved
in processing concrete and abstract words using functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI). Word and pseudoword stimuli were presented
visually, one at a time, and the participant was required to make
a lexical decision. Lexical decision epochs alternated with a resting
baseline. In each lexical decision epoch, the stimuli were either
concrete words and pseudowords, or abstract words and pseudowords.
Behavioral data indicated that, as with previous research, concrete
word stimuli were processed more efficiently than abstract word stimuli.
Analysis of the fMRI data indicated that processing of word stimuli,
compared to the baseline condition, was associated with neural activation
in the bilateral fusiform gyrus, anterior cingulate, left middle
temporal gyrus, right posterior superior temporal gyrus, and left
and right inferior frontal gyrus. A direct comparison between the
abstract and concrete stimuli epochs yielded a significant area of
activation in the right anterior temporal cortex. The results are
consistent with recent positron emission tomography work showing
right hemisphere activation during processing of abstract representations
of language. The results are interpreted as support for a right hemisphere
neural pathway in the processing of abstract word representations.
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