The language network as a natural kind within the broader landscape of the human brain

E Fedorenko, AA Ivanova, TI Regev - Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2024 - nature.com
Abstract Language behaviour is complex, but neuroscientific evidence disentangles it into
distinct components supported by dedicated brain areas or networks. In this Review, we …

Robust effects of working memory demand during naturalistic language comprehension in language-selective cortex

C Shain, IA Blank, E Fedorenko, E Gibson… - Journal of …, 2022 - Soc Neuroscience
To understand language, we must infer structured meanings from real-time auditory or visual
signals. Researchers have long focused on word-by-word structure building in working …

The human language system, including its inferior frontal component in “Broca's area,” does not support music perception

X Chen, J Affourtit, R Ryskin, TI Regev… - Cerebral …, 2023 - academic.oup.com
Abstract Language and music are two human-unique capacities whose relationship remains
debated. Some have argued for overlap in processing mechanisms, especially for structure …

Precision fMRI reveals that the language-selective network supports both phrase-structure building and lexical access during language production

J Hu, H Small, H Kean, A Takahashi… - Cerebral …, 2023 - academic.oup.com
A fronto-temporal brain network has long been implicated in language comprehension.
However, this network's role in language production remains debated. In particular, it …

Non-literal language processing is jointly supported by the language and theory of mind networks: evidence from a novel meta-analytic fMRI approach

M Hauptman, I Blank, E Fedorenko - Cortex, 2023 - Elsevier
Going beyond the literal meaning of language is key to communicative success. However,
the mechanisms that support non-literal inferences remain debated. Using a novel meta …

Domain-general and language-specific contributions to speech production in a second language: an fMRI study using functional localizers

A Wolna, J Szewczyk, M Diaz, A Domagalik… - Scientific reports, 2024 - nature.com
For bilinguals, speaking in a second language (L2) compared to the native language (L1) is
usually more difficult. In this study we asked whether the difficulty in L2 production reflects …

Distributed sensitivity to syntax and semantics throughout the language network

C Shain, H Kean, C Casto, B Lipkin… - Journal of Cognitive …, 2024 - direct.mit.edu
Human language is expressive because it is compositional: The meaning of a sentence
(semantics) can be inferred from its structure (syntax). It is commonly believed that language …

Neural populations in the language network differ in the size of their temporal receptive windows

TI Regev, C Casto, EA Hosseini, M Adamek… - Nature Human …, 2024 - nature.com
Despite long knowing what brain areas support language comprehension, our knowledge of
the neural computations that these frontal and temporal regions implement remains limited …

'Constituent length'effects in fMRI do not provide evidence for abstract syntactic processing

C Shain, H Kean, B Lipkin, J Affourtit, M Siegelman… - BioRxiv, 2021 - biorxiv.org
How are syntactically and semantically connected word sequences, or constituents,
represented in the human language system? An influential fMRI study, Pallier et al.(2011 …

Spatiotemporal Neural Network for Sublexical Information Processing: An Intracranial SEEG Study

C Zhao, Y Liu, J Zeng, X Luo, W Sun, G Luan… - Journal of …, 2024 - jneurosci.org
Words offer a unique opportunity to separate the processing mechanisms of object
subcomponents from those of the whole object, because the phonological or semantic …