Integrating emotional valence and semantics in the human ventral stream: a hodological account

Frontiers in Psychology

Sylvie Moritz-Gasser¹ 

关键词: ventral stream;    emotion;    semantic processing;    anatomo-functional connectivity;    brain electrostimulation mapping;    subcortical pathways;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00032

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Accessing the meaning of words to produce and understand language requires the activation of semantic representations. These latter are stored in semantic memory, organizing concepts according to semantic attributes (e.g., the cat mews), and semantic categories (e.g., the cat is an animal). Concerning semantic attributes, non-living concepts (e.g., tools) are processed preferentially according to functional features (e.g., a saw cuts) rather than visual features, whereas living concepts (e.g., animals) are processed preferentially according to visual features (e.g., the cat is little, with sharp ears) rather than functional ones (Warrington and Shallice, 1984). Within these semantic attributes, some are widely shared, independently from our personal history (e.g., the cat mews), and some are linked with our autobiographic memory (e.g., I had a cat when during my childhood). Moreover, most of the concepts have an emotional connotation which, whether it is widely shared (e.g., a black cat brings misfortune) or linked with our personal history (e.g., I love cats because mine was so soft) in a subjective-centered manner, constitutes a semantic attribute, i.e. a defining characteristic (Cato Jackson and Crosson, 2006).

【 授权许可】

CC BY