ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some of the research and focuses on language studies that have a bearing on the relation between mental imagery and language. Especially important has been the growing realization that vision and language in some respects use a shared neural substrate, giving rise to the idea that conceptual knowledge consists in the activation of cell assemblies in the brain's sensory-motor systems. Research into the neurobiological underpinnings of language only goes back some 150 years, taking its starting-point from the idea, first proposed by Franz Joseph Gall, that specific mental functions are computed by specific anatomical regions of the brain. Language travels from brain to brain in the form of either sound waves or photons. Italo Calvino suggests that two mechanisms play an outstanding role in poetic creativity: visual imagery — coming up with meaningful images — and the ability to form linguistic utterances that are able to represent such images.
