Up right, not right up: Primacy of verticality in both language and movement
When describing motion along both the horizontal and vertical axes, languages from different families express the elements encoding verticality before those coding for horizontality (e.g., going up right instead of right up). In light of the motor grounding of language, the present study investigate...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-09-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.981330/full |
| _version_ | 1798000081136254976 |
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| author | Véronique Boulenger Livio Finos Eric Koun Roméo Salemme Roméo Salemme Clément Desoche Clément Desoche Alice C. Roy |
| author_facet | Véronique Boulenger Livio Finos Eric Koun Roméo Salemme Roméo Salemme Clément Desoche Clément Desoche Alice C. Roy |
| author_sort | Véronique Boulenger |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | When describing motion along both the horizontal and vertical axes, languages from different families express the elements encoding verticality before those coding for horizontality (e.g., going up right instead of right up). In light of the motor grounding of language, the present study investigated whether the prevalence of verticality in Path expression also governs the trajectory of arm biological movements. Using a 3D virtual-reality setting, we tracked the kinematics of hand pointing movements in five spatial directions, two of which implied the vertical and horizontal vectors equally (i.e., up right +45° and bottom right −45°). Movement onset could be prompted by visual or auditory verbal cues, the latter being canonical in French (“en haut à droite”/up right) or not (“à droite en haut”/right up). In two experiments, analyses of the index finger kinematics revealed a significant effect of gravity, with earlier acceleration, velocity, and deceleration peaks for upward (+45°) than downward (−45°) movements, irrespective of the instructions. Remarkably, confirming the linguistic observations, we found that vertical kinematic parameters occurred earlier than horizontal ones for upward movements, both for visual and congruent verbal cues. Non-canonical verbal instructions significantly affected this temporal dynamic: for upward movements, the horizontal and vertical components temporally aligned, while they reversed for downward movements where the kinematics of the vertical axis was delayed with respect to that of the horizontal one. This temporal dynamic is so deeply anchored that non-canonical verbal instructions allowed for horizontality to precede verticality only for movements that do not fight against gravity. Altogether, our findings provide new insights into the embodiment of language by revealing that linguistic path may reflect the organization of biological movements, giving priority to the vertical axis. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T11:14:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f547103cbe974cfd851cde29d3dac7dc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T11:14:36Z |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-f547103cbe974cfd851cde29d3dac7dc2022-12-22T04:27:16ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612022-09-011610.3389/fnhum.2022.981330981330Up right, not right up: Primacy of verticality in both language and movementVéronique Boulenger0Livio Finos1Eric Koun2Roméo Salemme3Roméo Salemme4Clément Desoche5Clément Desoche6Alice C. Roy7Laboratoire Dynamique Du Langage, UMR 5596, CNRS/University Lyon 2, Lyon, FranceDepartment of Statistical Sciences, University of Padua, Padua, ItalyIntegrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team (IMPACT), Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM U1028, CNRS U5292, University Lyon 1, Lyon, FranceIntegrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team (IMPACT), Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM U1028, CNRS U5292, University Lyon 1, Lyon, FranceNeuro-Immersion, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Lyon, FranceIntegrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team (IMPACT), Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM U1028, CNRS U5292, University Lyon 1, Lyon, FranceNeuro-Immersion, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Lyon, FranceLaboratoire Dynamique Du Langage, UMR 5596, CNRS/University Lyon 2, Lyon, FranceWhen describing motion along both the horizontal and vertical axes, languages from different families express the elements encoding verticality before those coding for horizontality (e.g., going up right instead of right up). In light of the motor grounding of language, the present study investigated whether the prevalence of verticality in Path expression also governs the trajectory of arm biological movements. Using a 3D virtual-reality setting, we tracked the kinematics of hand pointing movements in five spatial directions, two of which implied the vertical and horizontal vectors equally (i.e., up right +45° and bottom right −45°). Movement onset could be prompted by visual or auditory verbal cues, the latter being canonical in French (“en haut à droite”/up right) or not (“à droite en haut”/right up). In two experiments, analyses of the index finger kinematics revealed a significant effect of gravity, with earlier acceleration, velocity, and deceleration peaks for upward (+45°) than downward (−45°) movements, irrespective of the instructions. Remarkably, confirming the linguistic observations, we found that vertical kinematic parameters occurred earlier than horizontal ones for upward movements, both for visual and congruent verbal cues. Non-canonical verbal instructions significantly affected this temporal dynamic: for upward movements, the horizontal and vertical components temporally aligned, while they reversed for downward movements where the kinematics of the vertical axis was delayed with respect to that of the horizontal one. This temporal dynamic is so deeply anchored that non-canonical verbal instructions allowed for horizontality to precede verticality only for movements that do not fight against gravity. Altogether, our findings provide new insights into the embodiment of language by revealing that linguistic path may reflect the organization of biological movements, giving priority to the vertical axis.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.981330/fullverticalityhand pointing movementlanguagesemantic typologykinematics |
| spellingShingle | Véronique Boulenger Livio Finos Eric Koun Roméo Salemme Roméo Salemme Clément Desoche Clément Desoche Alice C. Roy Up right, not right up: Primacy of verticality in both language and movement Frontiers in Human Neuroscience verticality hand pointing movement language semantic typology kinematics |
| title | Up right, not right up: Primacy of verticality in both language and movement |
| title_full | Up right, not right up: Primacy of verticality in both language and movement |
| title_fullStr | Up right, not right up: Primacy of verticality in both language and movement |
| title_full_unstemmed | Up right, not right up: Primacy of verticality in both language and movement |
| title_short | Up right, not right up: Primacy of verticality in both language and movement |
| title_sort | up right not right up primacy of verticality in both language and movement |
| topic | verticality hand pointing movement language semantic typology kinematics |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.981330/full |
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