Negation markers inhibit motor routines during typing of manual action verbs

DE VEGA, MANUEL; GARCÍA-MARCO, ENRIQUE; GARCÍA, ADOLFO M.; ROLÁN, KATIA; MORERA, YURENA; IBÁÑEZ, AGUSTÍN; BELTRÁN, DAVID

Ámsterdam

Congreso; 2018 International Meeting of the Psychonomic Society; 2018

Psychonomic Society

The present study examined whether the presence of negation markers during action-sentence processing inhibits motor routines involved in written production. Using a computer, participants read two-sentence Spanish texts and typed the text-final target verb, which could denote manual actions (sign), non-manual actions (kick) or non-action processes (think). The first sentence set the context of the action (There is a contract); the second one described the action with either affirmative (Now you do sign it) or negative (Now you don?t sign it) polarity. Motor planning and execution processes were assessed considering the lapse between target onset and first keystroke, and between first and last keystroke, respectively. Whereas negation yielded no effect on motor planning, it selectively interfered with the typing (motor execution) of manual action verbs, irrespective of the subjects? typing skills. This result indicates that processing negations during comprehension of manual-action sentences recruits inhibitory mechanisms acting on same-effector movements.