Juggling with rubber hands, leaping with rubber feet: Sensorimotor reuse during verb comprehension.
Suesan MacRae, Heath E Matheson
Brain and language December 2025 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105639 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study using representational similarity analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Body ownership illusions of the hands and feet |
| Measures | Representational similarity analysis (RSA) |
| Keywords | Categorization Embodied cognition Event related potentials Grounded cognition Representational similarity analysis Semantic memory Word recognition |
| Key findings | Sensorimotor information was decodable during verb categorization at around 600 ms in control conditions and around 400 ms for hand-related verbs specifically. Body ownership illusions altered the pattern of sensorimotor activity and made decoding earlier when sensorimotor information was pre-activated. The authors argue this shows that pre-activating sensorimotor information changes the neural dynamics supporting verb comprehension, supporting a process of neural reuse. |
Abstract
Theories of embodied and grounded cognition suggest that the reuse of sensorimotor information supports word comprehension. In the current study, we induced body ownership illusions of the hands and feet (and related control conditions) while participants categorized verbs related to the hands and feet. Using representational similarity analysis (RSA) we demonstrate that sensorimotor information is decodable during verb categorization at around 600 ms in control conditions and around 400 ms for hand related verbs specifically. Further, the pattern of sensorimotor activity elicited during verb categorization is altered when participants experience body ownership illusions; decoding is earlier when sensorimotor information was pre-activated with illusions. Overall, our results suggest that preactivating sensorimotor information alters the neural dynamics supporting verb comprehension, providing evidence for a neurocognitive process that reuses sensorimotor information. These results contribute to the development of models for embodied and grounded cognition and provide insight into the dynamics of neural reuse.