Berlin Gesture Center | Interdisziplinäres BGC-Kolloquium

Vortrag von:
Henning Holle, Thomas C. Gunter, Shirley-Ann Rüschemeyer, Andreas Hennenlotter (Max-Planck-Institute of Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig), and Marco Iacoboni (Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, Los Angeles):

Neural correlates of the processing of co-speech gestures: an experiment using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Freitag, 2. Februar 2007, 19 Uhr, Boltzmannstr. 3 (Raum 1105), 14195 Berlin (U-Bahnhof Thielplatz)

 

 

In face-to-face conversation, speech is often accompanied by gestures. For example, speakers illustrate certain contents by means of iconic gestures. These are hand movements that bear a formal relationship to the semantic contents of speech. The meaning of an iconic gesture is determined both by its form as well as by the speech context in which it is performed. Thus, understanding an iconic gesture requires a listener to integrate auditory and visual information.
From a neurocognitive perspective, an important question is what brain area houses the integration of gesture and speech. A substantial number of recent studies conjectures that the superior temporal sulcus (STS) is particulary involved in audio-visual integration processes, ranging from rather simple mapping processes on a form level (e.g. integration of lip movements and their corresponding speech sounds) to more complex semantic mapping processes, such as the integration of pictures of animals and their corresponding sounds. On the basis of recent fMRI data, I will argue that the left posterior STS is also involved in the integration of gesture and speech.