ReviewTrends in cognitive sciences2020
Broca's Area Is Not a Natural Kind.
Review in Trends in cognitive sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05222594 (Computational Neuroscience of Language Processing in the Human Brain), which is not on this map. Cited by 156 papers, 4 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.
Computational Neuroscience of Language Processing in the Human Brain
Who cites it
156 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Non-literal language processing is jointly supported by the language and theory of mind networks: Evidence from a novel meta-analytic fMRI approach.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2023Pooled it
- Brain Activities Responding to Acupuncture at ST36 (Frontiers in neurology · 2022Pooled it
- Multiple dimensions underlying the functional organization of the language network.NeuroImage · 2021Pooled it
- Neural Resources Supporting Language Production vs. Comprehension in Chronic Post-stroke Aphasia: A Meta-Analysis Using Activation Likelihood Estimates.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Neuroplasticity associated with changes in conversational turn-taking following a family-based intervention.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2021Trial
- Distinct Patterns of Syntactic Errors Doubly Dissociate in Chronic Poststroke Aphasia.Journal of cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Review
- Functional identification of language-responsive sensors in individual participants in MEG investigations.Journal of neurophysiology · 2026Article
- Broca's area, responsible for speech production, is regulated by lung function.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- Cascading Periods of Language-Related Brain Plasticity Across Early Childhood.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Preserved topography, lateralization, selectivity, and functional connectivity of the language network in older brains.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A language network in the individualized functional connectomes of 1199 human brains doing arbitrary tasks.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The Extended Language Network: Language-Responsive Brain Areas Whose Contributions to Language Remain To Be Discovered.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Article
- Selectivity for high-level language processing is highly localized in individual brains.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Precision fMRI reveals that the language network exhibits adult-like left-hemispheric lateralization by 4 years of age.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Neural Mechanisms of Bidirectional Visuo-Linguistic Transformation in Interactive Communication.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Premotor cortex uses a compositional neural geometry to plan words.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Domain-general demands that deactivate multiple-demand regions.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026Article
96 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
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Theories of human cognition prominently feature 'Broca's area', which causally contributes to a myriad of mental functions. However, Broca's area is not a monolithic, multipurpose unit - it is structurally and functionally heterogeneous. Some functions engaging (subsets of) this area share neurocognitive resources, whereas others rely on separable circuits. A decade of converging evidence has now illuminated a fundamental distinction between two subregions of Broca's area that likely play computationally distinct roles in cognition: one belongs to the domain-specific 'language network', the other to the domain-general 'multiple-demand (MD) network'. Claims about Broca's area should be (re)cast in terms of these (and other, as yet undetermined) functional components, to establish a cumulative research enterprise where empirical findings can be replicated and theoretical proposals can be meaningfully compared and falsified.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.