Aristotle concluded in the 4th century BC that 鈥溾�� between similes and metaphors. After all, the metaphor 鈥渉e鈥檚 a bear in the morning,鈥� means the same as the simile 鈥渉e鈥檚 like a bear in the morning鈥�.
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 a functional MRI scanner, whether they could understand a series of metaphors or similes.
In keeping with previous fMRI research, participants鈥� brains were active in the left inferior frontal gyrus. But Shibata鈥檚 team also found that there was an increase in activity in the medial frontal region when processing similes, which may be linked to processes of inference. The right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was more active for metaphors.
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Shibata says the findings build on research suggesting that 鈥渢he right IFG has a complementary role in language comprehension鈥�.
The team next hopes to use EEG to put these figurative constructions under the microscope 鈥� metaphorically speaking, of course.
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