Functional MRI of conventional and anomalous metaphors in Mandarin Chinese

Kathleen Ahrens*, Ho Ling Liu, Chia Ying Lee, Shu Ping Gong, Shin Yi Fang, Yuan Yu Hsu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

106 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study looks at whether conventional and anomalous metaphors are processed in different locations in the brain while being read when compared with a literal condition in Mandarin Chinese. We find that conventional metaphors differ from the literal condition with a slight amount of increased activation in the right inferior temporal gyrus. In addition, when the anomalous metaphor condition is compared with the literal condition, increased activation occurs bilaterally in the frontal and temporal gyri. Lastly, the comparison between the anomalous and conventional metaphor conditions shows bilateral activation in the middle frontal gyrus and the precentral gyrus, and right-hemisphere activation in the superior frontal gyrus. Left hemisphere activation is found in the inferior frontal gyrus and fusiform gyrus. The left hemisphere activation in the frontal and temporal gyri point to the recruitment of traditional language-based areas for anomalous metaphor sentences, while the right-hemisphere activation found suggests that remote associations are being formed. In short, our study supports the idea that metaphors are not a homogenous type of figurative language and that distinguishing between different types of metaphors will advance theories of language comprehension.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)163-171
Number of pages9
JournalBrain and Language
Volume100
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 02 2007

Keywords

  • Anomalous metaphors
  • Conventional metaphors
  • Functional MRI
  • Graded salience hypothesis
  • Mandarin Chinese
  • Novel metaphors

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Functional MRI of conventional and anomalous metaphors in Mandarin Chinese'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this