Embodied and Situated Language Processing: Stepping out of the Frame

Background and Purpose: Ruminations involve repetitive, prolonged, and recurrent thoughtsabout one’s self, concerns and experiences. These thoughts are predominantly verbal and can beconsidered as a particular case of inner speech. It has been suggested that inner speech is a kindof motor action. In line with this suggestion, we predicted an increase of speech muscle activityduring verbal rumination as compared to rest (following a relaxation session). Furthermore, weexpected that orofacial relaxation might reduce speech muscle activity and lead to a decrease ininner verbal productions. Method: We recorded lip (i.e., orbicularis oris superior, OOS), forehead (i.e., frontalis, Front)and forearm (for control) muscle activity in 33 participants, using surface electromyography(EMG). Ruminative state was assessed via subjective reports at three consecutive points: aftera first relaxation session (initial resting state), after a rumination induction procedure (involvinga forced-failure task) and after a second relaxation session or a distraction task (listening to astory, control condition). Results: Results showed an increase in EMG activity in the OOS and Front muscles afterrumination induction compared to the initial relaxed state. This increase in orofacial EMGactivity was associated with positive subjective reports of rumination and was not due to gen-eral muscular tension because there was no increase in forearm EMG. Furthermore, preliminaryanalyses suggested a decrease in orofacial EMG activity following the relaxation session and nodecrease after the control distraction condition. Conclusion: The observed increased OOS activity after rumination induction corroborates the ∗Speaker†Corresponding author: [email protected]‡Corresponding author: [email protected]§Corresponding author: [email protected]