From novel to familiar: tuning the brain for metaphors |
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Authors: | Cardillo Eileen R Watson Christine E Schmidt Gwenda L Kranjec Alexander Chatterjee Anjan |
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Affiliation: | a Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USAb Department of Psychology, Hope College, Hope, MI, USAc Department of Psychology, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA |
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Abstract: | Metaphors are fundamental to creative thought and expression. Newly coined metaphors regularly infiltrate our collective vocabulary and gradually become familiar, but it is unclear how this shift from novel to conventionalized meaning happens in the brain. We investigated the neural career of metaphors in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study using extensively normed new metaphors and simulated the ordinary, gradual experience of metaphor conventionalization by manipulating participants' exposure to these metaphors. Results showed that the conventionalization of novel metaphors specifically tunes activity within bilateral inferior prefrontal cortex, left posterior middle temporal gyrus, and right postero-lateral occipital cortex. These results support theoretical accounts attributing a role for the right hemisphere in processing novel, low salience figurative meanings, but also show that conventionalization of metaphoric meaning is a bilaterally-mediated process. Metaphor conventionalization entails a decreased neural load within semantic networks rather than a hemispheric or regional shift across brain areas. |
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Keywords: | Career of metaphor Right hemisphere Figurative language Novelty Familiarity fMRI |
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