Our brain is very good at processing metaphors. Moreover, in a study published in mid-2017 in the journal Brain and Cognition , a team of researchers from the University of Alicante, in collaboration with experts from the Bioengineering Institute of the Miguel Hernández de Elche University, already indicated that, in fact , he needs them to be able to understand reality and that, in essence, he manages visual metaphors –such as those commonly used in advertising– and verbal metaphors.
On that occasion, Spanish scientists pointed out that different areas of our thinking organ are activated if they are images that show us contents literally or metaphorically, but that coincidences are observed when figurative messages are transmitted to us orally or through a screen. This phenomenon also suggests that there is an interconnection between different brain areas.
Thus, in other trials, in which magnetic resonance imaging systems have been used, it has been found that when someone is told, for example, that they are going to have a hard day, those related to tactile experiences. Something similar happens if it is said that a person is sweet: those that light up are the ones that usually do it when we taste something.
Now, the neuroscientist Vicky Lai, from the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona, has promoted an initiative that aims to delve into this matter and determine at what exact moment the areas of our brain that participate in these processes are activated. Also, if from all this it is possible to shed some light on our ability to understand language, since metaphors are so integrated in our way of speaking that, often, we do not even realize that we are using them. We use roughly one for every twenty words, and our brains decode, so to speak, the meaning of four of the last words per second.
Words we feel in our brains
As explained in a statement from the aforementioned US institution, Lai and his collaborators measured the brain waves of a group of volunteers when they were presented on a monitor with both specific ideas, which could be interpreted literally, and other metaphorical ones, which used different degrees of abstraction. Thus, they observed that in the next 200 milliseconds after having seen the verbs that described the actions, such as breaking, the motor areas that would be involved in them were activated. These were different if instead of the aforementioned term “break” “alter” was used. This suggests, according to Lai, that these areas can play a relevant role during the mental translation of these metaphors.
“If we could understand how the brain manages the complexity of language, we could determine if it affects other aspects of human cognition,” says Lai. In this way, perhaps we could take advantage of our knowledge about the construction of metaphors to improve moods or even the learning of complex concepts.
Reference: Concrete processing of action metaphors: Evidence from ERP . Vicky T. Lai et al. Brain Research (2019) . DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2019.03.005
