Abstract
The results of previous research suggest that language and motor areas may share overlapping or interconnected representations associated with limb-specific action verbs. For example, reaction times (RTs) for hand responses are shorter when people respond to action words that are compatible with the responding limb (e.g., pinch or punch) than for words that are incompatible with the responding limb (e.g., kick or step). The purpose of the present study was to determine if the motor system is activated by limb-specific nouns in the absence of an action context. If the language/motor system overlaps extend to nouns, then similar compatibility effects should be observed for both verbs and nouns. If these associations are limited to verbs, then compatibility effects will only be seen for the verbs and not nouns. Participants (n=12) completed a choice response task in which responses were made to hand and foot-related nouns (e.g., glove, boots) and verbs (e.g., clap, stomp). The preliminary findings indicate a word meaning-response compatibility effect for foot-related verbs and not for hand-related verbs. When responding to nouns, a word meaning-response compatibility effect was found for hand-related nouns only. Overall, the patterns of effects in the present data presented are mixed, with limb-specific compatibility effects emerging with foot-related verbs and hand-related nouns.Acknowledgments: NSERC