Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Volume 17, Issue 9, September 2013, Pages 458-470
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Review
How neurons make meaning: brain mechanisms for embodied and abstract-symbolic semantics

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.06.004Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Semantic processing requires distinct neural mechanisms with different brain bases.

  • These include referential, combinatorial, emotional-affective and abstract-symbolic semantics.

  • All semantic processes are grounded; only some are embodied in action and perception.

  • Neural processes of disembodiment are explained by neurobiological principles.

How brain structures and neuronal circuits mechanistically underpin symbolic meaning has recently been elucidated by neuroimaging, neuropsychological, and neurocomputational research. Modality-specific ‘embodied’ mechanisms anchored in sensorimotor systems appear to be relevant, as are ‘disembodied’ mechanisms in multimodal areas. In this paper, four semantic mechanisms are proposed and spelt out at the level of neuronal circuits: referential semantics, which establishes links between symbols and the objects and actions they are used to speak about; combinatorial semantics, which enables the learning of symbolic meaning from context; emotional-affective semantics, which establishes links between signs and internal states of the body; and abstraction mechanisms for generalizing over a range of instances of semantic meaning. Referential, combinatorial, emotional-affective, and abstract semantics are complementary mechanisms, each necessary for processing meaning in mind and brain.

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