Gesture Meaning

Background: Previous studies on left hemisphere (LH) stroke patients reported effector-specific (hand, fingers, bucco-facial) differences in imitation performance. Furthermore, imitation performance differed between meaningless (ML) and meaningful (MF) gestures. Recent work suggests that a gesture's meaning impacts the body-part specificity of gesture imitation.

Methods: We tested the hypothesis that the gesture's meaning (ML vs MF) affects the lesion correlates of effector-specific imitation deficits (here: bucco-facial vs arm/hand gestures) using behavioural data and support vector regression-based lesion-symptom mapping (SVR-LSM) in a large sample of 194 sub-acute LH stroke patients.

Gesture Meaning

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Results: Behavioural data revealed a significant interaction between the effector used for imitation and the meaning of the imitated gesture. SVR-LSM analyses revealed shared lesion correlates for impaired imitation independent of effector or gesture meaning in the left supramarginal (SMG) and superior temporal gyri (STG). Besides, within the territory of the left middle cerebral artery, impaired imitation of bucco-facial gestures was associated with more anterior lesions, while arm/hand imitation deficits were associated with more posterior lesions. MF gestures were specifically associated with lesions in the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left insular region. Notably, an interaction of effector-specificity and gesture meaning was also present at the lesion level: A more pronounced difference in imitation performance between the effectors for ML (versus MF) gestures was associated with left-hemispheric lesions in the STG, SMG, putamen, precentral gyrus and white matter tracts.

Conclusion: The current behavioural data show that ML gestures are particularly sensitive in assessing effector-specific imitation deficits in LH stroke patients. Moreover, a gesture's meaning modulated the effector-specific lesion correlates of bucco-facial and arm/hand gesture imitation. Hence, it is crucial to consider gesture meaning in apraxia assessments.

A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication or non-vocal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of, or in conjunction with, speech. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body. Gestures differ from physical non-verbal communication that does not communicate specific messages, such as purely expressive displays, proxemics, or displays of joint attention.[1] Gestures allow individuals to communicate a variety of feelings and thoughts, from contempt and hostility to approval and affection, often together with body language in addition to words when they speak. Gesticulation and speech work independently of each other, but join to provide emphasis and meaning.

Gesture processing takes place in areas of the brain such as Broca's and Wernicke's areas, which are used by speech and sign language.[2] In fact, language is thought by some scholars to have evolved in Homo sapiens from an earlier system consisting of manual gestures.[3] The theory that language evolved from manual gestures, termed Gestural Theory, dates back to the work of 18th-century philosopher and priest Abb de Condillac, and has been revived by contemporary anthropologist Gordon W. Hewes, in 1973, as part of a discussion on the origin of language.[4]

Gestures have been studied throughout time from different philosophers.[5] Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Roman Rhetorician who studied in his Institutio Oratoria on how gesture can be used on rhetorical discourses. One of his greatest works and foundation for communication was the "Institutio Oratoria" where he explains his observations and nature of different oratories.[6]

A study done in 1644, by John Bulwer an English physician and early Baconian natural philosopher wrote five works exploring human communications pertaining to gestures.[7] Bulwer analyzed dozens of gestures and provided a guide under his book named Chirologia which focused on hand gestures.[8] In the 19th century, Andrea De Jorio an Italian antiquarian who considered a lot of research about body language published an extensive account of gesture expressions.[9]

Andrew N. Meltzoff an American psychologist internationally renown for infant and child development conducted a study in 1977 on the imitation of facial and manual gestures by newborns. The study concluded that "infants between 12 and 21 days of age can imitate the facial and manual gestures of parents".[10] In 1992, David Mcneill, a professor of linguistics and psychology at the University of Chicago, wrote a book based on his ten years of research and concluded that "gestures do not simply form a part of what is said, but have an impact on thought itself." Meltzoff argues that gestures directly transfer thoughts into visible forms, showing that ideas and language cannot always be express.[11] A peer-reviewed journal Gesture has been published since 2001,[12] and was founded by Adam Kendon and Cornelia Mller.[13] The International Society for Gesture Studies (ISGS) was founded in 2002.[14]

Gesture has frequently been taken up by researchers in the field of dance studies and performance studies in ways that emphasize the ways they are culturally and contextually inflected. Performance scholar Carrie Noland describes gestures as "learned techniques of the body" and stresses the way gestures are embodied corporeal forms of cultural communication.[15] But rather than just residing within one cultural context, she describes how gestures migrate across bodies and locations to create new cultural meanings and associations. She also posits how they might function as a form of "resistance to homogenization" because they are so dependent on the specification of the bodies that perform them.[16]

Gesture has also been taken up within queer theory, ethnic studies and their intersections in performance studies, as a way to think about how the moving body gains social meaning. Jos Esteban Muoz uses the idea of gesture to mark a kind of refusal of finitude and certainty and links gesture to his ideas of ephemera. Muoz specifically draws on the African-American dancer and drag queen performer Kevin Aviance to articulate his interest not in what queer gestures might mean, but what they might perform.[17] Juana Mara Rodrguez borrows ideas of phenomenology and draws on Noland and Muoz to investigate how gesture functions in queer sexual practices as a way to rewrite gender and negotiate power relations. She also connects gesture to Giorgio Agamben's idea of "means without ends" to think about political projects of social justice that are incomplete, partial, and legibile within culturally and socially defined spheres of meaning.[18]

Within the field of linguistics, the most hotly contested aspect of gesture revolves around the subcategory of Lexical or Iconic Co-Speech Gestures. Adam Kendon was the first to hypothesize on their purpose when he argued that Lexical gestures do work to amplify or modulate the lexico-semantic content of the verbal speech with which they co-occur.[1] However, since the late 1990s, most research has revolved around the contrasting hypothesis that Lexical gestures serve a primarily cognitive purpose in aiding the process of speech production.[19][20] As of 2012, there is research to suggest that Lexical Gesture does indeed serve a primarily communicative purpose and cognitive only secondary, but in the realm of socio-pragmatic communication, rather than lexico-semantic modification.[21]

Humans have the ability to communicate through language, but they can also express through gestures. In particular, gestures can be transmitted through movements of body parts, face, and body expressions.[22] Researchers Goldin Meadow and Brentari D. conducted research in 2015 and concluded that communicating through sign language is no different from spoken language.[23]

The first way to distinguish between categories of gesture is to differentiate between communicative gesture and informative gesture. While most gestures can be defined as possibly happening during the course of spoken utterances, the informative-communicative dichotomy focuses on intentionality of meaning and communication in co-speech gesture.[22]

Informative gestures are passive gestures that provide information about the speaker as a person and not about what the speaker is trying to communicate. Some movements are not purely considered gestures, however a person could perform these adapters in such way like scratching, adjusting clothing, and tapping.[24]

These gestures can occur during speech, but they may also occur independently of communication, as they are not a part of active communication. While informative gestures may communicate information about the person speaking (e.g. itchy, uncomfortable, etc.), this communication is not engaged with any language being produced by the person gesturing.[22]

Communicative gestures are gestures that are produced intentionally and meaningfully by a person as a way of intensifying or modifying speech produced in the vocal tract (or with the hands in the case of sign languages), even though a speaker may not be actively aware that they are producing communicative gestures.[22] For instance, on the picture above of Uncle Sam, he is pointing and sending a non-verbal form of gesture by implying he wants you to join the U.S. Army. This is a form of symbolic gesture, usually used in the absence of speech.[23]

Body language is a form of nonverbal communication that allows visual cues that transmit messages without speaking. Gestures are movement that are made with the body: arms, hands, facial, etc.[25] Authors Barbara Pease and Allan Pease, of "The Definitive Book of Body Language" concluded that everyone does a shoulder shrug, a gesture signifying that the person is not comprehending what they are supposed to be understanding. Also, that showing the palms of both hands to show a person is not hiding anything, and raising the eyebrows to indicate a greeting.[26] 2351a5e196