ArticleNature human behaviour2022
Distinct spatiotemporal patterns of syntactic and semantic processing in human inferior frontal gyrus.
Article in Nature human behaviour, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neural Correlates of Semantic Interference and Phonological Facilitation in Picture Naming: A Systematic Review and Coordinate-Based Meta-analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2025Pooled it
- Hybrid spatial organization and evidence for magnitude-independent neural coding of linguistic information during sentence production.Science advances · 2026Article
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- A Fine-grained Spatiotemporal ECoG Dataset during Speech Perception in Tonal Language.Scientific data · 2026Article
- Controlled Semantic Cognition: Precision Recordings Converge With in Silico Experiments to Reveal the Inner Workings of the Anterior Temporal Lobe Hub.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Review
- Real-time decoding of full-spectrum Chinese using brain-computer interface.Science advances · 2025Article
- Unravelling the genetic and molecular basis of low-frequency rTMS induced changes in functional connectivity density in schizophrenia patients with auditory verbal hallucinations.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Hippocampal and cortical high-frequency oscillations orchestrate human semantic networks during word list memory.iScience · 2025Article
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- Figure-ground relationship of voices in musical structure modulates reciprocal frontotemporal connectivity.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Investigating the role of the left inferior frontal gyrus in language evolution: insights from comparative neuroscience.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Review
- Continuous Theta-Burst Stimulation on the Left Posterior Inferior Frontal Gyrus Perturbs Complex Syntactic Processing Stability in Mandarin Chinese.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- A speech fluency brain network derived from gliomas.Brain communications · 2024Article
- Cognitive Science Progresses Toward Interactive Frameworks.Topics in cognitive science · 2023Article
- The cortical regions and white matter tracts underlying auditory comprehension in patients with primary brain tumor.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- A review of functional MRI application for brain research of Chinese language processing.Magnetic resonance letters · 2023Review
- Intersecting distributed networks support convergent linguistic functioning across different languages in bilinguals.Communications biology · 2023Article
- A reconceptualization of sentence production in post-stroke agrammatic aphasia: the synergistic processing bottleneck model.Frontiers in language sciences · 2023Article
- Mandarin Chinese L1 and L2 complex sentence reading reveals a consistent electrophysiological pattern of highly interactive syntactic and semantic processing: An ERP study.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Human languages are based on syntax, a set of rules which allow an infinite number of meaningful sentences to be constructed from a finite set of words. A theory associated with Chomsky and others holds that syntax is a mind-internal, universal structure independent of semantics. This theory, however, has been challenged by studies of the Chinese language showing that syntax is processed under the semantic umbrella, and is secondary and not independent. Here, using intracranial high-density electrocorticography, we find distinct spatiotemporal patterns of neural activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus that are specifically associated with syntactic and semantic processing of Chinese sentences. These results suggest that syntactic processing may occur before semantic processing. Our findings are consistent with the view that the human brain implements syntactic structures in a manner that is independent of semantics.
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