Electrophysiological and kinematic correlates of communicative intent in the planning and production of pointing gestures and speech
Publication year
2015Number of pages
17 p.
Source
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 27, 12, (2015), pp. 2352-2368ISSN
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor

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Organization
SW OZ DCC BO
SW OZ DCC PL
Taalwetenschap
Journal title
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Volume
vol. 27
Issue
iss. 12
Languages used
English (eng)
Page start
p. 2352
Page end
p. 2368
Subject
DI-BCB_DCC_Theme 1: Language and Communication; Giving cognition a hand: Linking spatial cognition to linguistic expression in native and late signers and bimodal bilinguals; Language in Mind; Language in our hands: Acquisition of spatial language in deaf and hearing children; Multimodal language and communication; Psycholinguistics; niet-RU-publicatiesAbstract
In everyday human communication, we often express our communicative intentions by manually pointing out referents in the material world around us to an addressee, often in tight synchronization with referential speech. This study investigated whether and how the kinematic form of index finger pointing gestures is shaped by the gesturer's communicative intentions and how this is modulated by the presence of concurrently produced speech. Furthermore, we explored the neural mechanisms underpinning the planning of communicative pointing gestures and speech. Two experiments were carried out in which participants pointed at referents for an addressee while the informativeness of their gestures and speech was varied. Kinematic and electrophysiological data were recorded online. It was found that participants prolonged the duration of the stroke and poststroke hold phase of their gesture to be more communicative, in particular when the gesture was carrying the main informational burden in their multimodal utterance. Frontal and P300 effects in the ERPs suggested the importance of intentional and modality-independent attentional mechanisms during the planning phase of informative pointing gestures. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the complex interplay between action, attention, intention, and language in the production of pointing gestures, a communicative act core to human interaction.
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- Academic publications [202801]
- Electronic publications [100942]
- Faculty of Arts [23881]
- Faculty of Social Sciences [27106]
- Open Access publications [69657]
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