A left-lateralized dorsolateral prefrontal network for naming

Abstract

The ability to connect the form and meaning of a concept, known as word retrieval, is fundamental to human communication. While various input modalities could lead to identical word retrieval, the exact neural dynamics supporting this process relevant to daily auditory discourse remain poorly understood. Here, we recorded neurosurgical electrocorticographic (ECoG) data from 48 patients and dissociated two key language networks that highly overlap in time and space critical for word retrieval. Using unsupervised temporal clustering techniques, we found a semantic processing network located in the middle and inferior frontal gyri. This network was distinct from an articulatory planning network in the inferior frontal and precentral gyri, which was invariant to input modalities. Functionally, we confirmed that the semantic processing network encodes word surprisal during sentence perception. These findings elucidate neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the processing of semantic auditory inputs ranging from passive language comprehension to conversational speech.