Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24697242›Full record

ReviewAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences2014

Hierarchical processing in music, language, and action: Lashley revisited.

W Tecumseh Fitch, Mauricio D Martins

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 93 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
93citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

93 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Cortico-striatal network architecture shapes rhythmic biases in music.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026
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  6. The Forms and Structures of Chimpanzee Algae Fishing.American journal of primatology · 2026
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  9. Building hierarchically nested structure by rapid neural sequences.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
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  19. Review
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33 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

W Tecumseh FitchDepartment of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Mauricio D Martins

Funding

European Research Council 230604
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Sixty years ago, Karl Lashley suggested that complex action sequences, from simple motor acts to language and music, are a fundamental but neglected aspect of neural function. Lashley demonstrated the inadequacy of then-standard models of associative chaining, positing a more flexible and generalized "syntax of action" necessary to encompass key aspects of language and music. He suggested that hierarchy in language and music builds upon a more basic sequential action system, and provided several concrete hypotheses about the nature of this system. Here, we review a diverse set of modern data concerning musical, linguistic, and other action processing, finding them largely consistent with an updated neuroanatomical version of Lashley's hypotheses. In particular, the lateral premotor cortex, including Broca's area, plays important roles in hierarchical processing in language, music, and at least some action sequences. Although the precise computational function of the lateral prefrontal regions in action syntax remains debated, Lashley's notion-that this cortical region implements a working-memory buffer or stack scannable by posterior and subcortical brain regions-is consistent with considerable experimental data.

Indexed as

LanguageMotor ActivityMusicAnimalsFrontal LobeHumansMirror NeuronsModels, Neurologicalcomputationhierarchylanguagemusicsyntax

Identifiers

PMID24697242
PMCPMC4285949

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.