How motor activity affects verbal memory encoding: neural correlates of enactment
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1
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany
Recently it was shown that vocabulary-learning can be improved by simultaneously performing meaningful iconic gestures (Macedonia, Müller & Friederici, 2010). In the present study we investigated how motor activity in general affects verbal learning by using different gesture conditions. On three consecutive days participants (7 females, 7 males; M = 25.7 years, SD = 2.05) learned 42 novel words in five different training conditions: active performance of an iconic (c1, IcA) or grooming gesture (c2, GrA) and passive viewing of an iconic (c3 IcP) or grooming gesture (c4 GrP). In a verbal-control condition words were learned without any gesture (c5, Ver). In all conditions (c1-c5) participants repeated the acoustically presented novel word aloud. Preliminary analysis of the behavioural data indicate an interaction between the two factors ‘gesture-type’ (iconic/grooming) and ‘activity’ (active/passive) revealing that actively performing an iconic gesture does not disturb vocabulary-learning but that the performance of grooming gestures reduces learning success. In a longitudinal design functional (fMRI, resting-state) and structural data (DWI, T1) data were acquired before and after the vocabulary training, enabling us to investigate training-induced changes on a neurobiological level. During the auditory fMRI-sessions novel words and German words were presented. In a lexical decision task participants were requested to press a button for German words only. 1st –level analyses of fMRI-data are in line with previous findings (Macedonia et al. 2010) and show increased brain-activity in the premotor cortex for words learned in the active gesture condition. Current work focuses on intra-individual pre- / post-comparisons as well as functional and structural connectivity.
Keywords:
fMRI,
Memory
Conference:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Poster Sessions: Decision Making, Reward Processing & Response Selection
Citation:
Krönke
K,
Friederici
AD and
Obrig
H
(2011). How motor activity affects verbal memory encoding: neural correlates of enactment.
Conference Abstract:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00406
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Received:
24 Nov 2011;
Published Online:
28 Nov 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Klaus-Martin Krönke, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, kroenke@cbs.mpg.de