SynthesisCerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)2009
Where is the semantic system? A critical review and meta-analysis of 120 functional neuroimaging studies.
Synthesis in Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 1,804 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
A Randomized Clinical Trial of tDCS to Remediate Phonological Impairment in Aphasia
TACS for the Recovery of Phonological STM After Stroke
Who cites it
1,804 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 4,114 citations in OpenAlex.
- Consistent neural evidence to support novelty and appropriateness processing for creative thinking: a coordinated meta-analysis using activation likelihood estimation.Brain structure & function · 2026Pooled it
- Cortical Gradients Support Mental Time Travel into the Past and Future: Evidence from Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2026Pooled it
- The Role of the Right Language Network and the Multiple-Demand Network in Verbal Semantics: Insights From an Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis of 561 Functional Neuroimaging Studies.Human brain mapping · 2025Pooled it
- Item-Level Analysis of Category Fluency Test Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Studies of Normal and Neurologically Abnormal Ageing.Neuropsychology review · 2025Pooled it
- Neurodevelopmental commonalities in cognitive control networks for mathematics and reading in meta-analysis of 3308 participants.Nature communications · 2025Pooled it
- Baseline cognition and stimulation site shape the effects of tdcs on verbal fluency in older and younger adults.GeroScience · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Lack of neuropsychological effects following short-term subcallosal cingulate gyrus deep brain stimulation in treatment-resistant depression: a randomised crossover study.BMJ mental health · 2025Trial
- Cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation improves quality of life in individuals with chronic poststroke aphasia.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- A systematic review of the impact of stimulus presentation modality on fMRI studies for presurgical mapping.Neuroimage. Reports · 2026Review
- Reduced task-switching flexibility in parietal-cingulate and frontal circuits associated with brooding.Cognitive neurodynamics · 2026Article
- Preoperative neuropsychological profiles in adult parietal glial and glioneuronal tumors: A retrospective descriptive study.Neurosurgical review · 2026Article
- Development, Normative Data, and Psychometric Properties of the Turkish Semantic Association Test (SEMAT) for Middle-Aged and Older Adults.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Multiscale neural signatures of long-lag repetition learning: a simultaneous fNIRS-EEG study.Neurophotonics · 2026Article
- A population code for semantics in human hippocampus.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- Decoding representations of personally familiar others in the default mode network.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Brain activation in persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD) in response to various visual motion stimuli eliciting abnormal egomotion perception.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2026Article
- Resolving the Abstract-Concrete Paradox in the Angular Gyrus: A Multimethod Investigation.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Brain Mechanisms of Lexicality in Bilingual Emotion Processing.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Spatiotemporal dynamics of frontoparietal networks in semantic intuitive decision-making.iScience · 2026Article
1,744 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Semantic memory refers to knowledge about people, objects, actions, relations, self, and culture acquired through experience. The neural systems that store and retrieve this information have been studied for many years, but a consensus regarding their identity has not been reached. Using strict inclusion criteria, we analyzed 120 functional neuroimaging studies focusing on semantic processing. Reliable areas of activation in these studies were identified using the activation likelihood estimate (ALE) technique. These activations formed a distinct, left-lateralized network comprised of 7 regions: posterior inferior parietal lobe, middle temporal gyrus, fusiform and parahippocampal gyri, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and posterior cingulate gyrus. Secondary analyses showed specific subregions of this network associated with knowledge of actions, manipulable artifacts, abstract concepts, and concrete concepts. The cortical regions involved in semantic processing can be grouped into 3 broad categories: posterior multimodal and heteromodal association cortex, heteromodal prefrontal cortex, and medial limbic regions. The expansion of these regions in the human relative to the nonhuman primate brain may explain uniquely human capacities to use language productively, plan, solve problems, and create cultural and technological artifacts, all of which depend on the fluid and efficient retrieval and manipulation of semantic knowledge.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.