Letters from the April 10, 2004, issue of Science News
By Science News
Inaction verbs?
Regarding “The Brain’s Word Act: Reading verbs revs up motor cortex areas” (SN: 2/7/04, p. 83: The Brain’s Word Act: Reading verbs revs up motor cortex areas), did the researchers image the brains of disabled people who know the meaning of a verb but can’t perform the action, or of people without any disabilities who know the meaning of a verb such as “scull” but have never performed the action? It seems that without the above-mentioned types of tests, the researchers’ conclusion is a little shaky.