Table 1.
Overview of the 17 original fMRI studies included in the current meta‐analysis
| Study | Field strength | Space | Metaphor type | Word or sentence | Task | Comparison | Threshold | Voxel Size (mm3) | N |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrens et al. 2007 | 1.5 T | Talairach | Anomalous (novel), conventional | Sentence | Passive reading (press button when finished) | Anomalous (novel) metaphor > literal; conventional metaphor > literal; anomalous metaphor > conventional metaphor | P < 0.001, uncorrected | 3 × 3 × 5 | 8 |
| Bambini et al. 2011 | 1.5 T | Talairach | Novel | Sentence | Semantic relatedness judgments (passage‐ target word) | All metaphor > literal | P < 0.005, cluster size corrected for multiple comparison | 5 mm thickness | 9 |
| Chen et al. 2008 | 3.0 T | Talairach | Not reported | Sentence | Plausibility judgment | Metaphor > literal sentence | P < 0.01, voxel > 40 | 3 × 3 × 3 | 14 |
| Diaz and Hogstrom 2011 | 3.0 T | MNI | Novel, conventional | Sentence | Sentence judgment (related, unrelated, nonword) | Metaphor > literal | P < 0.01 corrected | 4 × 4 × 4 | 16 |
| Diaz et al. 2011 | 3.0 T | MNI | Novel, conventional | Sentence | Valence rating (positive, negative, neutral) | Novel metaphor > nonword baseline; conventional metaphor > nonword baseline; all metaphor > literal | P < 0.01, voxel > 7 | 4 × 4 × 4 | 16 |
| Eviatar and Just 2006 | 3.0 T | Talairach | Conventional | Sentence | Comprehension task | Metaphor > literal | P < 0.01 corrected | 3.125 × 3.125 × 3 | 16 |
| Kircher et al. 2007 | 1.5 T | Talairach | Novel | Sentence | Connotation judgment (positive or negative) | Metaphor > low‐level baseline; metaphor > literal | P < 0.00001 (uncorrected), voxel >10 | 3 × 3 × 5 | 12 |
| Lee and Dapretto 2006 | 3.0 T | Talairach | Conventional | Word | Semantic relatedness judgments | Metaphor > rest; metaphor > literal | P < 0.05, corrected | 4 mm thickness and 1 mm gap | 12 |
| Mashal et al. 2007 | 1.5 T | Talairach | Novel, conventional | Word | Semantic relatedness judgments | Novel metaphor > unrelated words; conventional metaphor > unrelated words; novel metaphor > literal word pairs; conventional metaphor > literal word pairs; novel metaphor > conventional metaphor | P < 0.05, uncorrected (compared with unrelated words); P < 0.01, uncorrected (compared with literal word pairs) | 4 mm thickness and 1 mm gap | 15 |
| Mashal et al. 2009 | 3.0 T | Talairach | Novel | Sentence | Connotation judgment (positive or negative) | Metaphoric sentence > non‐sense sentence; Metaphoric sentence > Literal sentence | P < 0.001, uncorrected | 3.5 mm thickness and 0 mm gap | 15 |
| Rapp et al. 2004 | 1.5 T | Talairach | Novel | Sentence | Connotation judgment (positive or negative) | Metaphor > low‐level baseline; metaphor > literal | P < 0.05, corrected, voxel > 10, (compared with low‐level baseline); P < 0.001, corrected or uncorrected (compared with literal) | 3 × 3 × 5 | 15 |
| Schmidt and Seger 2009 | 3.0 T | Talairach | Novel | Sentence | Passive reading (when understand press button) | All metaphor > non‐word sentence; all metaphor > literal; conventional metaphor > literal; familiar metaphor > unfamiliar metaphor; unfamiliar metaphor > familiar metaphor; easy metaphor > difficult metaphor; difficult metaphor > easy metaphor | P < 0.001, uncorrected | 5 mm thickness | 10 |
| Shibata et al. 2007 | 1.5 T | Talairach | Novel | Sentence | Comprehension task (understand or not) | Metaphor > non‐linguistic baseline; metaphor > literal | P < 0.001,uncorrected, voxel > 10 | 4 mm thickness and 0.8 mm gap | 13 |
| Stringaris et al. 2006 | 1.5 T | Talairach | Conventional | Sentence | Semantic relatedness judgments (sentence‐ target word) | Metaphor > literal | voxel level of P < 0.05 and cluster level of p < 0.0025 | 5 × 5 × 5 | 12 |
| Stringaris et al. 2007 | 1.5 T | Talairach | Conventional | Sentence | Semantic judgment (make sense or not) | Metaphor > literal | P < 0.007 uncorrected | 5 × 5 × 5 | 11 |
| Uchiyama et al. [2012] | 3.0 T | MNI | Not reported | Sentence | Coherence judgment | Metaphor > literal | Z > 3.09 (P < 0.05 corrected) | 3 × 3 × 4 | 20 |
| Yang et al. 2010 | 3.0 T | MNI | novel, conventional | sentence | valence task (positive or negative) | novel metaphor > low‐level baseline; conventional metaphor > low‐level baseline | P < 0.05, FDR corrected, voxel >10 | 3.44 × 3.44 × 4 | 12 |