Non farlo! Negzione linguistica e simulazione delle azioni

Classical cognitivism, which poses a shape-shifted modern form of Cartesian dualism, has to progressively face the threat of theories and lines of empirical research that place the body and the sensori-motor simulation at the core of high order cognitive processes as language. Within this framework, the case of linguistic negation has always represented a weak point for the theories on language comprehension, which posit a functional role of sensorimotor simulation. The present paper will discuss how the investigation of the neural correlates of linguistic negation during motor-related sentence comprehension might help us to assess the involvement of the sensori-motor system in the abstract representation of actions. In particular, we will discuss three recent studies that used different neuro-investigation (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and functional Magetic Resonance Imaging) to investigate the neural correlates of linguistic negation in the sensori-motor simulations involved in sentence comprehension. Results suggest that action simulation processes during sentence comprehension are associated to the comprehension of whole sentences and are sensitive to the linguistic context.