Pathogen stress heightens sensorimotor dimensions in the human collective semantic space
Abstract Infectious diseases have been major causes of death throughout human history and are assumed to broadly affect human psychology. However, whether and how conceptual processing, an internal world model central to various cognitive processes, adapts to such salient stress variables remains la...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Communications Psychology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00183-5 |
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| author | Ze Fu Huimin Chen Zhan Liu Maosong Sun Zhiyuan Liu Yanchao Bi |
| author_facet | Ze Fu Huimin Chen Zhan Liu Maosong Sun Zhiyuan Liu Yanchao Bi |
| author_sort | Ze Fu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Infectious diseases have been major causes of death throughout human history and are assumed to broadly affect human psychology. However, whether and how conceptual processing, an internal world model central to various cognitive processes, adapts to such salient stress variables remains largely unknown. To address this, we conducted three studies examining the relationship between pathogen severity and semantic space, probed through the main neurocognitive semantic dimensions revealed by large-scale text analyses: one cross-cultural study (across 43 countries) and two historical studies (over the past 100 years). Across all three studies, we observed that increasing pathogen severity was associated with an enhancement of the sensory-motor dimension in the collective semantic space. These patterns remained robust after controlling for the effects of sociocultural variables, including economic wealth and societal norms of tightness. These results highlight the universal dynamic mechanisms of collective semantics, such that pathogen stress potentially drives sensorially oriented semantic processing. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-98106f5e563245898772bfd628dd5970 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2731-9121 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communications Psychology |
| spelling | doaj-art-98106f5e563245898772bfd628dd59702025-01-05T12:45:08ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Psychology2731-91212025-01-013111410.1038/s44271-024-00183-5Pathogen stress heightens sensorimotor dimensions in the human collective semantic spaceZe Fu0Huimin Chen1Zhan Liu2Maosong Sun3Zhiyuan Liu4Yanchao Bi5State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal UniversitySchool of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua UniversityDepartment of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua UniversityDepartment of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua UniversityDepartment of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua UniversityState Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal UniversityAbstract Infectious diseases have been major causes of death throughout human history and are assumed to broadly affect human psychology. However, whether and how conceptual processing, an internal world model central to various cognitive processes, adapts to such salient stress variables remains largely unknown. To address this, we conducted three studies examining the relationship between pathogen severity and semantic space, probed through the main neurocognitive semantic dimensions revealed by large-scale text analyses: one cross-cultural study (across 43 countries) and two historical studies (over the past 100 years). Across all three studies, we observed that increasing pathogen severity was associated with an enhancement of the sensory-motor dimension in the collective semantic space. These patterns remained robust after controlling for the effects of sociocultural variables, including economic wealth and societal norms of tightness. These results highlight the universal dynamic mechanisms of collective semantics, such that pathogen stress potentially drives sensorially oriented semantic processing.https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00183-5 |
| spellingShingle | Ze Fu Huimin Chen Zhan Liu Maosong Sun Zhiyuan Liu Yanchao Bi Pathogen stress heightens sensorimotor dimensions in the human collective semantic space Communications Psychology |
| title | Pathogen stress heightens sensorimotor dimensions in the human collective semantic space |
| title_full | Pathogen stress heightens sensorimotor dimensions in the human collective semantic space |
| title_fullStr | Pathogen stress heightens sensorimotor dimensions in the human collective semantic space |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pathogen stress heightens sensorimotor dimensions in the human collective semantic space |
| title_short | Pathogen stress heightens sensorimotor dimensions in the human collective semantic space |
| title_sort | pathogen stress heightens sensorimotor dimensions in the human collective semantic space |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00183-5 |
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