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An emerging class of theories of knowledge assumes that the representation and processing of concepts is achieved by reactivating multiple aspects of experience. Abstract concepts such as freedom and justice constitute a challenge for these theories because they have no clearly identifiable referent that we can experience. The Words As social Tools theory (WAT) posits that while both concrete and abstract concepts activate sensorimotor networks, the linguistic network is activated more by abstract than by concrete concepts given that the mode of acquisition of abstract concepts relies more on language. In this chapter we extend this argument and report results from an experiment with the Extrinsic Simon task suggesting that when we process abstract words we re-enact the experience of their acquisition and/or explain to ourselves their meaning.

This work focuses on emotional concepts. We define concepts as patterns of neural activation that re-enact a given external or internal experience, for example the interoceptive experience related to fear. Concepts are mediated and expressed through words. In the following, we will use “words” to refer to word meanings, assuming that words mediate underlying concepts. Since emotional concepts and the words that mediate them are less related to the physical environment than concrete ones, at first sight they might be depicted as abstract concepts. Evidence coming from several studies shows, instead, that the issue is more complex. In this work, we will briefly outline the debate and illustrate results from recent studies on comprehension of concrete, emotional and abstract words in children and adults. We will argue that emotional words can be accounted for from a grounded perspective and will contend that emotional words represent a particular set of words that differs from both the concrete and purely abstract ones.

Questo studio indaga la relazione tra i movimenti del nostro corpo e l’elaborazione numerica andando a studiare l’asse di movimento circolare. I partecipanti dovevano contare aggiungendo o sottraendo ‘tre’ mentre eseguivano dei movimenti circolari, in direzione oraria o antioraria, in modalità attiva (camminando) oppure in modalità passiva (venivano spinti su una sedia a rotelle). I risultati hanno messo in luce la presenza di una relazione tra l’elaborazione numerica e la direzione del movimento circolare, sia in condizioni di movimento attivo che passivo, ma solo per le addizioni e limitatamente ai partecipanti maschi. This study investigates the relationship between the movements of the whole body and numerical calculation, such as additions and subtractions. Starting from previous evidence on the horizontal and vertical axes, in the present study participants were required to count by adding or subtracting 'three' while performing a motion on the circular axis (i.e., a clockwise or counterclockwise movement), in an active (i.e., walking) or passive mode (i.e., being pushed on a wheelchair). Results showed the presence of a relationship between numerical processing and the direction of the circular movement, both in an active and passive movement condition, but only for additions and only for male participants. Implications of the results for theories of embodied cognition are discussed.

The paper focuses on concepts and words referring to odors and to objects that have an odor. We argue that odors are an interesting object of study since they are evanescent, and since odor words do not refer to concrete and manipulable objects, but to scents evoked by objects. A second reason why odors are interesting is that some languages, as the Western ones, lack a specific odor lexicon, comparable in richness and variety to the color lexicon, and that performance on odors naming is typically worse than performance in color naming. In this work we discuss three main issues. First, we illustrate literature showing that, even if odor words do not have concrete referents, many languages encode them quite easily: the case of odors suggests that word meaning cannot be exhausted by the relationship with a referent, and highlights the importance of the social sharing of meaning. Second, we have discussed the peculiar status of odor concepts and words. Given their ambiguous status, their simple existence poses problems both to theories according to which concrete and abstract concepts do not differ, and to theories according to which they represent a dichotomy. Finally, we present an experiment in which we show that names of objects evoke their smell, and that these smells evoke approach and avoidance movements, in line with theories according to which words are grounded in both sensorial and motor systems.

Le nuove scienze cognitive hanno ormai abbandonato la "metafora del computer", secondo la quale la mente umana è paragonabile a un software la cui comprensione non richiede informazioni sull'hardware, il corpo. Viceversa, ci troviamo di fronte a un mosaico di proposte teoriche adottate in molteplici settori di ricerca - dalla psicologia sperimentale alla filosofia della mente - e accomunate dall'idea che la maggior parte dei processi cognitivi superiori avvenga mediante i sistemi di controllo del corpo agente. Una mappa chiara per orientarsi nel mondo della "embodied cognition".

The extended mind view and the embodied-grounded view of cognition and language are typically considered as rather independent perspectives. In this paper we propose a possible integration of the two views and support it proposing the idea of “Words As social Tools” (WAT). In this respect, we will propose that words, also due to their social and public character, can be conceived as quasi-external devices that extend our cognition. Moreover, words function like tools in that they enlarge the bodily space of action thus modifying our sense of body. To support our proposal, we review the relevant literature on tool-use and on words as tools and report recent evidence indicating that word use leads to an extension of space close to the body. In addition, we outline a model of the neural processes that may underpin bodily space extension via word use and may reflect possible effects on cognition of the use of words as external means. We also discuss how reconciling the two perspectives can help to overcome the limitations they encounter if considered independently.

Both evolutionary and developmental research indicate that humans are adapted to respecting property rights, independently (and possibly orthogonally) to considerations of fairness. We offer evidence from psychological experiments suggesting that enforcing one’s rights and respecting others’ possessions is a basic cognitive mechanism, automatically activated and grounded in humans’ sensory-motor system. This may entail an independent motivation that is more profound than considerations of fairness and impartiality.

Embodied Cognition represents the most important news in cognitive psychology in the last twenty years. The basis of its research program is the idea that cognitive processes depend, mirror, and are influenced by bodily control systems. A whole class of novel perspectives has entered into the psychologists' agenda only after the emergence and success of the EC. In the paper we will deal with some of the main topics debated within the EC, from the discussion on the role of representation, to the relationship with enactivism, with functionalism and with the extended mind view. Against an interpretation according to which EC is simply an evolution of the classical cognitivist program, we will focus on the aspects that highlight crucial discontinuities with it, suggesting instead that the EC perspective is indebted with previous theoretical traditions such as American pragmatism, ecological psychology and phenomenology. In the present paper we will discuss some of the most important achievements of EC in different areas of experimental research, from the study of affordances to that of the bodily experience, from the investigation on emotions to that on language. Our aim is to force the Italian public, particularly recalcitrant to EC, to critically reflect on the debts to previous traditions. Copyright © 2013 by Società editrice il Mulino.

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The aim of this special issue is to bring together researchers embracing different approaches – neuroscientists, psychologists, semioticians, linguists, philosophers, and anthropologists – to outline principles that could provide an intersubjective foundation for embodiment.

Language is usually considered as a set of arbitrary symbols that convey subjacent internal concepts. According to this traditional approach words are only words, mere external signals of internal processes. In contrast, we propose that Words are social Tools (WAT). This view allows us address one of the critical problems embodied views face, the problem of how abstract words are acquired and represented. Indeed, we argue that the role of sensorimotor engagement varies depending on the considered domain. In the case of the acquisition of concrete word meanings, categories are grounded primarily in perception and action systems, and linguistic labels contribute in constraining the boundaries of grounded categories. In the use of abstract words, the opposite mechanism might be adopted. Abstract words are more difficult to learn because they activate a much more complex set of situations, objects, human activities and so on. The linguistic labels help us group and assemble this variety of experiences. In addition, diversity of languages has more of an impact on abstract words as opposed to concrete word meaning.

The body, as the subject or the object of our experience, mediates all our interactions with the world. In contrast with traditional views, recent studies have shown that our sense of body is plastic and can be modified. In this perspective, a number of psychological and neuroscientific studies have demonstrated that, when humans and monkeys use an instrument to reach a target-object, an extension of their peri-personal space occurs. This extension effect has been demonstrated with monkeys and humans, with neglect patients and with controls, and with a variety of paradigms. In the last years, both neuroscientists (e.g. Farne’ et al., 2005) and philosophers (e.g., Clark, 2008) have proposed interesting parallels between tool-use and language. In this paper we intend to propose that words, similarly to tools, enlarge our space of action and modify the sense of our body. We will ground our proposal and discuss it also in light of recent evidence, obtained in our lab with kinematics and other behavioural studies, that shows that words use leads to an extension of our peri-personal space.

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So far studies on language comprehension adopting the embodied and grounded perspective have underlined the similarities between language and action. In line with the idea of neural re-use, this chapter shows that language reflects some characteristics of action organization, but also that it builds on these characteristics, and modifies them in sophisticated ways. In the first part evidence is provided showing that the simulation evoked by language is rather detailed and it activates a specific kind of affordances, that is stable and canonical affordances rather than variable ones; in the case of tools this simulation activates function rather than manipulation. When possible, the simulation prepares for a specific action; when the situation is uncertain predictions are advanced in parallel in preparation of many possible situations. The second part of the chapter discusses how language reflects some characteristics of action organization. Evidence is illustrated indicating that the goal-derived and chained structure of action is reflected in language. The simulation is influenced both by the overall action goal and by the kinematics of actions; the latter is relevant only if it leads to a different interpretation of the action as a whole. However, language modulates how these aspects influence the motor system. The verb presented in imperative form, and in the 2nd person, leads to the preparation of a specific action, as the reader is recruited as agent. This phenomenon is less marked with other past tenses and with other pronouns.

In this paper, we outline the embodied perspective of language comprehension indicating some of its limitations. We claim that the notions of language as tool-chest (Wittgenstein, 1953), and the notion of words as tools (Clark, 2006a, 2006b), might be useful to overcome a view focused only on referential aspects of language. Words, in quality of tools, can: a. facilitate communication among speakers; b. influence categorization; c. have a different impact on concrete and abstract words; d. increase our memory; e. allow us to construct an inner speech. Finally, we discuss how thinking about language as tool can help inform future research on thought, language, and body.

Behavioural and neuroscience studies have shown that observing objects activates affordances, evoking motor responses. The aim of the present study is twofold. First, we intend to investigate whether children are sensitive to the distinction between neutral/graspable (affordances) and dangerous objects. Second, we aim to verify whether children’s responses are modulated also by the agent who is interacting with the objects (human hand contrasted with robot hand, and male hand contrasted to female hand). We conducted an experiment on school-age children using a priming paradigm: a prime given by a hand or a control object was followed by graspable or dangerous objects. Children were required to categorize them into artefacts or natural objects by pressing two keys on a keyboard. Our results clearly showed that children are able to distinguish between neutral and dangerous objects: the latter produced an interference effect. In addition, we demonstrated that children are sensitive to the difference between actions performed by biological and non-biological agents: responses were faster when the prime was a grasping hand of a human compared to control stimuli. Results were interpreted in terms of gradient of vulnerability (female hand induced the most inhibition, while robot hand induced the least one) and of motor resonance (resonance is higher when the similarity between the hand prime and the participant’s hand is higher).

In her target article Tina Iachini (2011) proposes to adopt an embodied multimodal approach to account for classical psychological and more recent neuroscientific results on mental imagery. Her proposal is challenging, and I share with the author the persuasion that the times are mature to introduce and defend an embodied approach to mental imagery. While the challenge has well known antecedents in the area of motor imagery (e.g., Jeannerod, 1994), it strikes me as quite new if we consider the research field of mental imagery as a whole (for a related proposal see Grush, 2004). Even though I deeply appreciate the effort made by the author to combine the two perspectives, my task here consists of addressing some unsolved issues that I think should be pointed out. Therefore in my commentary I will briefly start with three critical observations/proposals, then I will focus on a crucial point: the notion of simulation.

Background: Gadoxetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA) is a “hepatocyte-specific” contrast agent for magnetic resonance (MR), taken up by hepatocytes, and thus producing both vascular and hepatocyte-specific MR patterns. Aim: To assess the diagnostic contribution of Gd-EOB-DTPA MR, including the added value of hepatocyte-specific phase images, in the recall diagnostic strategy of small liver nodules emerged during surveillance program of cirrhotic patients. Methods: Forthy-one consecutive small (10-30 mm) liver nodules detected at ultrasonography in 26 patients with cirrhosis were prospectively submitted to contrast-enhanced ultrasound, helical-computed tomography, and Gd-EOBDTPA MR. The diagnosis of HCC was made according to AASLD 2005 criteria. Results: Among the 41 nodules, 30 (73%) received a final diagnosis of HCC. Overall, Gd-EOB-DTPA MR was the most sensitive technique for detecting the typical vascular pattern (arterial hypervascularity followed by venous wash-out) which was observed in 25/30 (RMN vs CT: 80% vs 63%, p=0.2; RMN vs CEUS: 80% vs 43%, p=0.007; CT vs CEUS: 63% vs 43%, p=0.19, Fisher’s exact test). HCC (leading to 5 “hypovascular” HCC). Thirty-four nodules were hypointense during hepatocyte-specific phase: all of the 30 HCC nodules (100%) and 4 non-malignant nodules at biopsy, 2 of which receiving however a diagnosis of HCC during the follow-up. All of the 5 “hypovascular” HCC nodules appeared hypointense both in the venous and hepatocyte-specific phase of Gd-EOB-DTPA MR. Conclusions: Gd-EOB-DTPA MR may increase the diagnostic potential of non-invasive techniques, especially for HCC lacking a typical vascular pattern. Double hypointensity at Gd-EOB-DTPA MR, on venous and hepatocyte-specific phases, could be considered as a new radiological pattern highly suggestive for early HCC.