Abstract
ABSTRACT Sound symbolism refers to the association between the sounds of words and their meanings, often studied using the crossmodal correspondence between auditory pseudowords, e.g. ‘takete’ or ‘maluma’, and pointed or rounded visual shapes, respectively. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, participants were presented with pseudoword-shape pairs that were sound-symbolically congruent or incongruent. We found no significant congruency effects in the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal when participants were attending to visual shapes. During attention to auditory pseudowords, however, we observed greater BOLD activity for incongruent compared to congruent audiovisual pairs bilaterally in the intraparietal sulcus and supramarginal gyrus, and in the left middle frontal gyrus. We compared this activity to independent functional contrasts designed to test competing explanations of sound symbolism, but found no evidence for mediation via language, and only limited evidence for accounts based on multisensory integration and a general magnitude system. Instead, we suggest that the observed incongruency effects are likely to reflect phonological processing and/or multisensory attention. These findings advance our understanding of sound-to-meaning mapping in the brain.
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ABSTRACT
Sound symbolism refers to the association between the sounds of words and their meanings, often studied using the crossmodal correspondence between auditory pseudowords, e.g. ‘takete’ or ‘maluma’, and pointed or rounded visual shapes, respectively. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, participants were presented with pseudoword-shape pairs that were sound-symbolically congruent or incongruent. We found no significant congruency effects in the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal when participants were attending to visual shapes. During attention to auditory pseudowords, however, we observed greater BOLD activity for incongruent compared to congruent audiovisual pairs bilaterally in the intraparietal sulcus and supramarginal gyrus, and in the left middle frontal gyrus. We compared this activity to independent functional contrasts designed to test competing explanations of sound symbolism, but found no evidence for mediation via language, and only limited evidence for accounts based on multisensory integration and a general magnitude system. Instead, we suggest that the observed incongruency effects are likely to reflect phonological processing and/or multisensory attention. These findings advance our understanding of sound-to-meaning mapping in the brain.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Abbreviations: Directional
- a
- anterior
- front
- frontal
- i
- inferior
- lat
- lateral
- m
- mid
- med
- medial
- p
- posterior
- s
- superior
- v
- ventral
Abbreviations: Anatomical
- AG
- angular gyrus
- AOS
- anterior occipital sulcus
- calcS
- calcarine sulcus
- CeS
- central sulcus
- cingG
- cingulate gyrus
- cingS
- cingulate sulcus
- collatS
- collateral sulcus
- FG
- fusiform gyrus
- fo
- frontal operculum
- InfOS
- inferior occipital sulcus
- Ins
- insula
- IOG
- inferior occipital gyrus
- IOS
- intra-occipital sulcus
- IPS
- intraparietal sulcus
- ITG
- inferior temporal gyrus
- ITS
- inferior temporal sulcus
- LG
- lingual gyrus
- MFG
- middle frontal gyrus
- MOG
- middle occipital gyrus
- OrbG
- orbital gyrus
- poCG
- post central gyrus
- po
- pars opercularis
- poCS
- post central sulcus
- POF
- parieto-occipital fissure
- preCS
- precentral sulcus
- preCG
- precentral gyrus
- precun
- precuneus
- preSMA
- presupplementary motor area
- pt
- pars triangularis
- SFG
- superior frontal gyrus
- SFS
- superior frontal sulcus
- SMG
- supramarginal gyrus
- SOG
- superior occipital gyrus
- SPG
- superior parietal gyrus
- STS
- superior temporal sulcus. All other abbreviations are as in the main text.
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