Brain sees metaphor and simile differently

Aristotle concluded in the 4th century BC that "the difference is but slight" between similes and metaphors. After all, the metaphor, "He's a bear in the morning," means the same as the simile, "He's like a bear in the morning."

Our brains, apparently, do not agree. Midori Shibata and colleagues at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, asked 24 men and women to indicate, while in an functional MRI scanner, whether they could understand a series of metaphors or similes.

In keeping with previous fMRI research, participants' brains were active in the left inferior frontal gyrus. But Shibata's team also found that, when processing similes, there was an increase in activity in the medial frontal region, which may be linked to processes of inference. The right inferior frontal gyrus was more active for metaphors.

Shibata says the findings build on research suggesting that "the right IFG has a complementary role in language comprehension".

The team next hopes to use EEG to put these figurative constructions under the microscope ? metaphorically speaking, of course.

Journal reference: Brain and Language, DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2012.03.006

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