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It is suggested that understanding action verbs relies upon the same mechanism; this implies that motor responses to these words are automatic and independent of the subject of the verb. In the current study, participants were requested to read silently and decide on the syntactic subject of action and nonaction verbs, presented in first (1P) or third (3P) person, while TMS was applied to the left hand primary motor cortex (M1). TMS-induced motor-evoked potentials were recorded from hand muscles as a measure of cortico-spinal excitability. Motor-evoked potentials increased for 1P, but not for 3P, action verbs or 1P and 3P nonaction verbs. We provide novel demonstration that the motor simulation is triggered only when the conceptual representation of a word integrates the action with the self as the agent of that action. This questions the core principle of \u201cmirror matching\u201d and opens to alternative interpretations of the relationship between conceptual and sensorimotor processes.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1162\/jocn_a_00075","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2011,6,15]],"date-time":"2011-06-15T03:09:17Z","timestamp":1308107357000},"page":"3939-3948","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/mitpressjournals.corrections.policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":50,"title":["\u201cShe\u201d Is Not Like \u201cI\u201d: The Tie between Language and Action Is in Our Imagination"],"prefix":"10.1162","volume":"23","author":[{"given":"Liuba","family":"Papeo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"1Scuola Internazionale di Studi Superiori Avanzati (International School for Advanced Studies), Trieste, Italy"}]},{"given":"Corrado","family":"Corradi-Dell'Acqua","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"2University of Geneva"}]},{"given":"Raffaella Ida","family":"Rumiati","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"1Scuola Internazionale di Studi Superiori Avanzati (International School for Advanced Studies), Trieste, Italy"}]}],"member":"281","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2011,12,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"2021072901053406600_R1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1950","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1460-9568.2004.03277.x","article-title":"Functional MRI of the immediate impact of transcranial magnetic stimulation on cortical and subcortical motor circuits.","volume":"19","author":"Bestmann","year":"2004","journal-title":"European Journal of Neuroscience"},{"key":"2021072901053406600_R2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"27","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-9280.2008.02249.x","article-title":"When you and I share perspectives: Pronouns modulate perspective taking during narrative comprehension.","volume":"20","author":"Bruny\u00e9","year":"2009","journal-title":"Psychological Science: A Journal of the American Psychological Society\/APS"},{"key":"2021072901053406600_R3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"355","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cogbrainres.2005.02.020","article-title":"Listening to action-related sentences modulates the activity of the motor system: A combined TMS and behavioral study.","volume":"24","author":"Buccino","year":"2005","journal-title":"Cognitive Brain Research"},{"key":"2021072901053406600_R4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.3389\/fnbot.2010.00004","article-title":"Sentence processing: Linking language to motor chains.","volume":"4","author":"Chersi","year":"2010","journal-title":"Frontiers in Neurorobotics"},{"key":"2021072901053406600_R5","first-page":"435","article-title":"Action mirroring and action interpretation: An alternative account.","volume-title":"Sensorimotor foundations of higher cognition: Attention and performance XXII","author":"Csibra","year":"2007"},{"key":"2021072901053406600_R6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"577","DOI":"10.1016\/S1053-8100(03)00076-X","article-title":"When the self represents the other: A new cognitive neuroscience view on psychological identification.","volume":"12","author":"Decety","year":"2003","journal-title":"Consciousness and Cognition"},{"key":"2021072901053406600_R7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"176","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00230027","article-title":"Understanding motor events: A neurophysiological study.","volume":"91","author":"di Pellegrino","year":"1992","journal-title":"Experimental Brain Research. 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