sciencetech-blog

comments

A kind gesture may be 'sweet', and a bad break up 'bitter', but the reason we use these words goes far beyond what they mean.

Taste-related words, such as 'sour', engage the emotional areas of the brain more so than literal words with the same meaning, such as 'awful', according to a new study.

And using them in your speech could make you seem more influential by giving more weight to your words, researchers claim.

A kind gesture may be 'sweet' and a bad break up 'bitter', but the reason we use these words goes far beyond their meaning. Taste-related words engage the emotional areas of the brain more so than literal words with the same meaning, according to a new study

A team of researchers from the U.S. and Germany revealed that brain processes that use everyday metaphors based on taste are different to literal language. 

The researchers from Princeton University and the Free University of Berlin asked 37 participates to read sentences that included common taste-based metaphors, while their brain activity was recorded. 

Each taste-related word was then swapped with a literal counterpart so that, for instance, 'she looked at him sweetly', became, 'she looked at him kindly.'

The researchers found that the sentences containing words that invoked taste activated areas known to be associated with emotional processing, such as the amygdala.

They also triggered areas known as the gustatory cortices that are vital for the physical act of tasting.

Taste-related words activated areas in the brain associated with the physical act of tasting (a and b). They also stimulated brain regions known to be associated with emotional processing, such as the left hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrun and amygdala (shown in c)

Metaphorical sentences sparked increased brain activity in emotion-related regions because they refer to physical experiences, said co-author Adele Goldberg, a Princeton professor of linguistics.

Human language frequently uses physical sensations or objects to refer to abstract domains such as time, understanding or emotion, he added.

For instance, people liken love to a number of afflictions including being 'sick' or shot through the heart with an arrow.

Similarly, 'sweet' has a much clearer physical component than 'kind.'

Using these emotion-heavy words may give people a 'rhetorical advantage' when communicating with others, the researchers claim (stock image pictured)

The new research suggests that these associations go beyond just being descriptive to engage our brains on an emotional level, and potentially amplify the impact of the sentence, Professor Goldberg said.

'You begin to realise when you look at metaphors how common they are in helping us understand abstract domains,' he added.

'It could be that we are more engaged with abstract concepts when we use metaphorical language that ties into physical experiences.'

Using these emotion-heavy words may give people a 'rhetorical advantage' when communicating with others, the researchers claim.

The scientist now plan to follow up on their results by looking to see if figurative language is remembered more accurately than literal language.