ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2020
The Domain-General Multiple Demand (MD) Network Does Not Support Core Aspects of Language Comprehension: A Large-Scale fMRI Investigation.
Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 97 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
97 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled 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
- 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
- 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
- The neural correlates of semantic control revisited.NeuroImage · 2021Pooled it
- The cerebellum specializes for language even in the absence of contralateral neocortical inputs.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Functional identification of language-responsive sensors in individual participants in MEG investigations.Journal of neurophysiology · 2026Article
- Preserved topography, lateralization, selectivity, and functional connectivity of the language network in older brains.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Domain-general and language-specific brain networks are differentially associated with verbal intelligence during development.iScience · 2026Article
- Cognition disconnected: the influence of domain-general cognition (g) in lesion-deficit mapping.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026Article
- Predictability effects during reading comprehension are not modulated by a visuospatial working memory load.Memory & cognition · 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
- Stronger right-hemispheric involvement in language processing is associated with greater functional connectivity between the left-lateralized language-related network and the cingulo-opercular network.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- Precision fMRI reveals that the language network exhibits adult-like left-hemispheric lateralization by 4 years of age.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Language comprehension in chronic aphasia relies on the language network, not the Multiple Demand network.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Executive resources shape the impact of language predictability across the adult lifespan.eLife · 2026Article
- Dissecting the Sublexical Route for Reading: Frontal and Parietal Networks Support Learned Orthography-to-Phonology Mappings.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Beyond behavior: a neurocognitive agenda for investigating the neural underpinnings of successful high-technology augmentative and alternative communication in adults.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Posterior Cortical Atrophy: Altered Language Processing System Connectivity and Its Implications on Language Comprehension and Production.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Cognition Disconnected: The Influence of Domain-General Cognition (g) in Lesion-Deficit Mapping.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Mapping EEG Metrics to Human Affective and Cognitive Models: An Interdisciplinary Scoping Review from a Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
37 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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5 authors.
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Abstract
Aside from the language-selective left-lateralized frontotemporal network, language comprehension sometimes recruits a domain-general bilateral frontoparietal network implicated in executive functions: the multiple demand (MD) network. However, the nature of the MD network's contributions to language comprehension remains debated. To illuminate the role of this network in language processing in humans, we conducted a large-scale fMRI investigation using data from 30 diverse word and sentence comprehension experiments (481 unique participants [female and male], 678 scanning sessions). In line with prior findings, the MD network was active during many language tasks. Moreover, similar to the language-selective network, which is robustly lateralized to the left hemisphere, these responses were stronger in the left-hemisphere MD regions. However, in contrast with the language-selective network, the MD network responded more strongly (1) to lists of unconnected words than to sentences, and (2) in paradigms with an explicit task compared with passive comprehension paradigms. Indeed, many passive comprehension tasks failed to elicit a response above the fixation baseline in the MD network, in contrast to strong responses in the language-selective network. Together, these results argue against a role for the MD network in core aspects of sentence comprehension, such as inhibiting irrelevant meanings or parses, keeping intermediate representations active in working memory, or predicting upcoming words or structures. These results align with recent evidence of relatively poor tracking of the linguistic signal by the MD regions during naturalistic comprehension, and instead suggest that the MD network's engagement during language processing reflects effort associated with extraneous task demands.
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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.