Factors related to metaphor-processing areas of the brain

As one of the most important perspectives to understand the world, metaphor interpretation has long been concerned by researchers in cognitive fields. The development of advanced neuroimaging technologies, such as fMRI and ERP, which facilitate observing the process of metaphor comprehension in the brain, have all the more pushed this research forward. However, the conflicting conclusion drawn by different researchers confuse our view about the brain areas involving metaphor processing. Currently, there are three prevailing views, namely, the right brain theory, the left brain theory and the whole brain theory, which arouse our reflection. We have found out that there is something in each conclusion while there do exist contradictions between these conclusions. The reasons for the contradictions lie in the following two aspects: (1) There are some drawbacks in the researchers' view that metaphor processing simply involves some particular area in the brain; (2) There are still some vulnerabilities in their experimental designs. It should be noted that metaphor comprehension, i. e. the input, extraction, processing and integration of metaphorical information, is a quite complicated process, which is affected by many factors, including the characteristics of metaphor, the difference of individual processing, the way of information integration in the brain, and so on. That is why we cannot take it for granted that we have seen the whole picture of metaphor processing in the brain while we have only found out some of the aspects of the processing. Metaphor comprehension is such a complicated process that it cannot be completed by a single brain area. As an external stimulus, the novelty, visualization and multi-modality of metaphor itself may have influence on the processing. And the difference between individuals, including their intelligence and their familiarity with a given metaphor may also have effect on the processing. Besides, the way our brain integrates the metaphor information likewise presents the versatility and complexity of metaphor processing from input, extraction, processing and integration. Based on the experimental results of the previous researchers, it is concluded in the paper that the brain processing of metaphorical language has its own special features but it also shares the common features of general language processing.