ArticleJournal of cognitive neuroscience2017
Reversing the Standard Neural Signature of the Word-Nonword Distinction.
Article in Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Nature of a Writing System Shapes the Cognitive and Neural Mechanisms for Reading Acquisition.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Contributions of the multiple demand network to emergent and skilled reading.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Mapping the task-general and task-specific neural correlates of speech production: Meta-analysis and fMRI direct comparisons of category fluency and picture naming.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- An inclusive multivariate approach to neural localization of language components.Brain structure & function · 2024Article
- Multivariate word properties in fluency tasks reveal markers of Alzheimer's dementia.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Article
- The left posterior angular gyrus is engaged by autobiographical recall not object-semantics, or event-semantics: Evidence from contrastive propositional speech production.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Dual-axes of functional organisation across lateral parietal cortex: the angular gyrus forms part of a multi-modal buffering system.Brain structure & function · 2023Review
- The convergence and divergence of episodic and semantic functions across lateral parietal cortex.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2022Article
- A predictive account of how novelty influences declarative memory.Neurobiology of learning and memory · 2021Article
- Transition From Sublexical to Lexico-Semantic Stimulus Processing.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2020Article
- Duality of Function: Activation for Meaningless Nonwords and Semantic Codes in the Same Brain Areas.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2018Article
- Elaborative feedback: Engaging reward and task-relevant brain regions promotes learning in pseudoword reading aloud.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2018Article
- Awake fMRI Reveals Brain Regions for Novel Word Detection in Dogs.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2018Article
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5 authors.
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Abstract
The distinction between letter strings that form words and those that look and sound plausible but are not meaningful is a basic one. Decades of functional neuroimaging experiments have used this distinction to isolate the neural basis of lexical (word level) semantics, associated with areas such as the middle temporal, angular, and posterior cingulate gyri that overlap the default mode network. In two fMRI experiments, a different set of findings emerged when word stimuli were used that were less familiar (measured by word frequency) than those typically used. Instead of activating default mode network areas often associated with semantic processing, words activated task-positive areas such as the inferior pFC and SMA, along with multifunctional ventral occipitotemporal cortices related to reading, whereas nonwords activated default mode areas previously associated with semantics. Effective connectivity analyses of fMRI data on less familiar words showed activation driven by task-positive and multifunctional reading-related areas, whereas highly familiar words showed bottom-up activation flow from occipitotemporal cortex. These findings suggest that functional neuroimaging correlates of semantic processing are less stable than previously assumed, with factors such as word frequency influencing the balance between task-positive, reading-related, and default mode networks. More generally, this suggests that results of contrasts typically interpreted in terms of semantic content may be more influenced by factors related to task difficulty than is widely appreciated.
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