Do Words Stink? Neural Reuse as a Principle for Understanding Emotions in Reading

How do we understand the emotional content of written words? Here, we investigate the hypothesis that written words that carry emotions are processed through phylogenetically ancient neural circuits that are involved in the processing of the very same emotions in nonlanguage contexts. This hypothesi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cognitive neuroscience 2018-07, Vol.30 (7), p.1023-1032
Main Authors: Ziegler, Johannes C, Montant, Marie, Briesemeister, Benny B, Brink, Tila T, Wicker, Bruno, Ponz, Aurélie, Bonnard, Mireille, Jacobs, Arthur M, Braun, Mario
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Analysis of Variance
Brain
Brain - diagnostic imaging
Brain - physiology
Brain mapping
Cognitive science
Comprehension - physiology
Emotions
Emotions - physiology
Female
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Humans
Hypothesis testing
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Linguistics
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neural networks
Neuroscience
Oxygen - blood
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Photic Stimulation
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Psychology
Reading
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Vocabulary
Young Adult
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Summary:How do we understand the emotional content of written words? Here, we investigate the hypothesis that written words that carry emotions are processed through phylogenetically ancient neural circuits that are involved in the processing of the very same emotions in nonlanguage contexts. This hypothesis was tested with respect to disgust. In an fMRI experiment, it was found that the same region of the left anterior insula responded whether people observed facial expressions of disgust or whether they read words with disgusting content. In a follow-up experiment, it was found that repetitive TMS over the left insula in comparison with a control site interfered with the processing of disgust words to a greater extent than with the processing of neutral words. Together, the results support the hypothesis that the affective processes we experience when reading rely on the reuse of phylogenetically ancient brain structures that process basic emotions in other domains and species.
ISSN:0898-929X
1530-8898
DOI:10.1162/jocn_a_01268