Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30053570›Full record

ReviewCognition2018

Grounding the neurobiology of language in first principles: The necessity of non-language-centric explanations for language comprehension.

Uri Hasson, Giovanna Egidi, Marco Marelli, Roel M Willems

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Cognition, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 63 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
63citing papers in PubMed, 1 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

63 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Review
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Understanding discourse in face-to-face settings: The impact of multimodal cues and listening conditions.Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition · 2025
    Article
  10. Article
  11. Review
  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. Review
  15. Article
  16. Large-scale evidence for logarithmic effects of word predictability on reading time.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Word Frequency and Predictability Dissociate in Naturalistic Reading.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2024
    Article
  19. Article
  20. A Deep Learning Approach to Analyzing Continuous-Time Cognitive Processes.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2024
    Article

3 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

4 authors.

Uri HassonCenter for Mind/Brain Sciences, The University of Trento, Trento, Italy; Center for Practical Wisdom, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States. Electronic address: uri.hasson@unitn.it.
Giovanna EgidiCenter for Mind/Brain Sciences, The University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
Marco MarelliDepartment of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy; NeuroMI - Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milano, Italy.
Roel M WillemsCentre for Language Studies & Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Funding

European Research Council 263318
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Recent decades have ushered in tremendous progress in understanding the neural basis of language. Most of our current knowledge on language and the brain, however, is derived from lab-based experiments that are far removed from everyday language use, and that are inspired by questions originating in linguistic and psycholinguistic contexts. In this paper we argue that in order to make progress, the field needs to shift its focus to understanding the neurobiology of naturalistic language comprehension. We present here a new conceptual framework for understanding the neurobiological organization of language comprehension. This framework is non-language-centered in the computational/neurobiological constructs it identifies, and focuses strongly on context. Our core arguments address three general issues: (i) the difficulty in extending language-centric explanations to discourse; (ii) the necessity of taking context as a serious topic of study, modeling it formally and acknowledging the limitations on external validity when studying language comprehension outside context; and (iii) the tenuous status of the language network as an explanatory construct. We argue that adopting this framework means that neurobiological studies of language will be less focused on identifying correlations between brain activity patterns and mechanisms postulated by psycholinguistic theories. Instead, they will be less self-referential and increasingly more inclined towards integration of language with other cognitive systems, ultimately doing more justice to the neurobiological organization of language and how it supports language as it is used in everyday life.

Indexed as

LanguageBrainComprehensionHumansNeurobiologyPsycholinguisticsContextLanguageNeurobiology

Identifiers

PMID30053570
PMCPMC6145924

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
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.