Abstract: An experiment was conducted to examine the difference between body action verbs and mental action verbs using ERP measurements and lexical decision task. Results showed that mental action verbs were associated with a more positive ERP than body action verbs around occipital sites of the left hemisphere between 200 to 300 ms. Between 300 to 400 ms, ERP differences between two types of verbs were primarily over the left hemisphere and midline site, especially around the central areas. Body action verbs were associated with a more negative ERP than mental action verbs. The neurobiological theory of language representation can partly explain our results.

Key words: body action verbs, mental action verbs, ERP, neurobiological theory of language representation