Context (archaeology)

Linguistics

Cognitive psychology

Philosophy

Neuroscience

Biology

Middle temporal gyrus

Posterior cingulate

Cognition

Sensory system

Angular gyrus

Magnetoencephalography

Computer science

Paleontology

Psychology

Inferior frontal gyrus

Verb

Superior temporal sulcus

Artificial intelligence

Electroencephalography

Embodied cognition

Perspective (graphical)

Perception

Event-related potential

Social Neuroscience

According to the embodied cognition framework, sensory and motor areas are recruited during language understanding through simulation processes. Behavioral and imaging findings point to a dependence of the latter on perspective-taking (e.g., first person "I" versus third person "s/he"). The current study aims at identifying possible neurophysiological correlates of perspective in a linguistic context. Twenty healthy participants were measured with magnetoencephalography (MEG) while semantically processing visually presented inflected German verbs in the first- and third-person perspective, simple present tense. Results show that the first-person perspective induces stronger beta (15–25 Hz) desynchronization in the right-hemispheric posterior superior temporal sulcus, ventral posterior cingulate gyrus, and V5/MT+ area; no modulation of sensorimotor cortex emerged. Moreover, a stronger event-related field (ERF) was observed for the first-person perspective at about 150 ms after pronoun-verb onset, originating in occipital and moving to central and left temporal cortical sites. No effect of perspective on sensory gating was found when targeting the N1 component related to tones following the linguistic stimuli. Results indicate an effect of linguistic perspective-taking on brain activation patterns. The contribution of the single brain areas and their role in self-other distinction is further discussed.

Neurophysiological mechanisms of perspective-taking: An MEG investigation of agency