中国科学院心理研究所机构知识库

In recent years, it has been proposed that sensory-motor experiences are often used to access concrete concepts, and the sensory-motor system is tightly related to the language system. Metaphors, which convey abstract concepts via concrete concepts, are common rhetoric in daily life. Exploring the role of the sensory-motor system in metaphor comprehension will lead to an improved understanding of the form and process of abstract concepts, and further elucidate the relationship between the sensory-motor system and the language system. In this paper, we summarize the experimental paradigm, cognitive features of sensory-motor metaphor comprehension, the mechanism of brain regions involved in sensory channels, action control and action performance during metaphor processing. We propose that the sensory-motor system selectively functions in metaphor comprehension, and the comprehension process relies on activities of sensory-motor regions, and the simulation of sensory-motor experience is not immediate and rapid but rather is influenced by language comprehension strategies. In the "Embodied abstraction" frame, "Simulated sensorimotor metaphor theory" further explains the interaction between the sensory-motor system and metaphor comprehension. Future studies are needed to verify and supplement these theories by adopting other analysis methods, and from other study perspectives like grammar, language acquisition and motion dysfunction.