Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism

From Images and Words to Modality-Independent Semantic Representations: When and Where They Emerge

This study uses MEG to investigate when and where modality-independent semantic representations emerge for images and words during encoding tasks.

Decomposing Parts of Speech: Neural Encoding of Semantic and Grammatical Dimensions and Their Combinational Structure

The paper decomposes part-of-speech categories into semantic and grammatical dimensions using MEG data, showing distinct neural responses to these components and their interactions during language comprehension.

Lexical surprisal drives pupil dilation during continuous story listening

This study shows that pupil dilation during story listening reflects lexical surprisal, indicating cognitive processing costs in naturalistic language comprehension.

Executive and language systems competitively shape predictive processing during reading

This study shows that predictive language processing during reading relies on executive resources, especially under cognitive load, and is dynamically coupled with working memory.

The Concise Language Paradigm in left and right hemisphere stroke: a longitudinal source-localized EEG study

This study uses EEG source reconstruction with a language paradigm to examine hemispheric dominance changes in stroke patients over time.

Individual Differences in Sustained Attention Tune Semantic Abstraction in Neural Encoding of Narratives

The paper investigates how individual differences in sustained attention affect neural semantic encoding of narratives using fMRI and LLM embeddings, finding that attention shifts representations toward gist-level formats.

Aging Is Associated with Reduced Topographic Differentiation Between Speaking and Silent Reading

This study finds that aging reduces neural differentiation between speaking and silent reading, particularly in later processing stages, while maintaining overall EEG activity and behavioral performance.

Speech Tracking in fMRI Reveals a Distinct Response to Sentence Boundaries During Comprehension

This study uses fMRI to show that sentence boundaries during speech comprehension elicit a distinct neural response beyond speech properties, supporting active sentence segmentation.

The scaffolding of individual variability in language processing by domain-general neural networks

This study examines how individual cognitive differences influence neural responses during language tasks using fMRI and cognitive assessments in a large adult sample.

The role of world knowledge in sentence comprehension under working-memory constraints: An fMRI study

This study investigates how working-memory constraints affect the use of world knowledge in sentence comprehension, finding robust neural responses to implausibility but no clear modulation by the phonological loop.

Spoken language comprehension relies on context-dependent neural weighting of syntax and prosody

The paper investigates how syntax and prosody interact in spoken language comprehension using MEG data, finding context-dependent neural interactions between the two.

Dispelling the Plateau Assumption: Case-Based Evidence for Language Recovery in Chronic-Post Stroke Aphasia

This study shows that language recovery in chronic post-stroke aphasia can continue for years, supported by neuroplastic changes, using longitudinal behavioral and fMRI assessments.

Larger Pre-Speech Auditory Modulation Is Associated With Smaller Corrective Responses To Auditory Errors

The paper examines the relationship between pre-speech auditory modulation and error correction in young and older adults, finding that aging reduces behavioral corrections but preserves modulation magnitudes.

How the brain distinguishes a bilingual's languages is partly shared across people and partly their own

The paper decodes language state in bilinguals using fMRI and identifies shared and individual brain organization patterns.

When meaning becomes decodable: Linking neural markers of semantic processing and semantic representations

The paper investigates the relationship between N400 responses and semantic decoding performance in MEG data, finding that unrelated primes yield better decoding and suggest semantic information reshaping by context.

Prior knowledge reveals two computational regimes for syntactic processing in the human brain

The paper investigates how prior knowledge influences syntactic processing in the human brain using MEG and linguistic corpora, revealing two distinct computational regimes for parsing syntax.

Contextual Prediction Tunes the Tempo of Speech Segmentation

The paper investigates how context influences speech segmentation by testing temporal structure alterations and shows that natural syllable timing and predictability enhance recognition.

The Role of the Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus in Resolving Immediate and Carryover Semantic Interference During Picture Naming

This study investigates the role of the left inferior frontal gyrus in resolving semantic interference during picture naming using transcranial stimulation techniques.

Person-specific intrinsic-timescale topographies persist from rest into sentence processing

The paper examines if resting-state neural temporal organization persists during sentence processing and links it to semantic anomaly responses.

Anterior temporal lobes show route-dependent sensitivity to conceptual specificity: Evidence from MEG and EEG

The paper investigates how the anterior temporal lobes (ATL) and inferior frontal cortex (IFC) process conceptual specificity using MEG and EEG, finding distinct patterns for high-specificity concepts.

Semantic distance differently modulates FPVS-EEG responses to words and pictures

This study uses EEG and FPVS to show that semantic distance affects brain responses differently to words and pictures in healthy subjects.

Beta bursts carry a graded signal of semantic updating during naturalistic narrative comprehension

The paper shows that beta bursts during narrative comprehension carry a graded signal of semantic updating, independent of other factors like lexical surprisal.

Establishing parallel and scalar measures of executive and semantic demand: an online norming study of matched, cross-domain judgement tasks

The paper develops and validates two large-scale stimulus sets for measuring processing demand across semantic and visuospatial domains, matched using a speed-accuracy algorithm.

Enhanced cortical tracking of unfamiliar languages in both monolinguals and bilinguals

The paper examines how the brain tracks unfamiliar languages in monolinguals and bilinguals using EEG and TRF modeling, finding enhanced cortical tracking for unfamiliar languages and stronger overall tracking in bilinguals.

The cerebellum specializes for language even in the absence of contralateral neocortical inputs

The paper shows that the cerebellum can develop language sensitivity without contralateral neocortical inputs, using cases with atypical brain development.

When tigers are not animals: The neural disappearance of animacy as a function of linguistic structure

The paper investigates how linguistic structure affects neural representations of animacy, finding that word-level animacy disappears when it conflicts with structural context.

Comparing serial and parallel language input: Shared neural representations with distinct encoding strengths

This study compares neural representations of grammaticality in serial and parallel language input using MEG, finding shared representations with distinct encoding strengths.

No tiger in plastic tiger: Local linguistic context alters the neural representations of individual words

The paper investigates how local linguistic context affects neural representations of words, finding that phrase-level animacy is decoded early and persists, challenging theories of basic-to-derived meaning shifts.

Brain Mechanisms of Lexicality in Bilingual Emotion Processing

This study uses fMRI to compare how native speakers and L2 learners process emotional prosody in real words vs. pseudowords, finding distinct brain activation patterns based on lexicality.

Changes in Neural Dynamics of Brain Activity and Connectivity Independently Predict Post-Stroke Aphasia Recovery

The paper identifies phase-specific neural predictors of post-stroke aphasia recovery using task-related activity and connectivity, highlighting multiple-demand and inferior frontal regions as potential targets.