ArticleNeurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.)2021
The Language Network Is Recruited but Not Required for Nonverbal Event Semantics.
Article in Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 71 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
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- Decoding concept representations in aphasia after stroke.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Neural Coding of Multiple Linguistic Components During Reading Comprehension Across Development.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Do Language Models Know Who Did What to Whom?Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2026Article
- Visual Semantic Encoding and Identification of Naturalistic Movies via High-Density Diffuse Optical Tomography.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Multilingual Computational Models Capture a Shared Meaning Component in Brain Responses across 21 Languages.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The cerebellar components of the human language network.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Mind captioning: Evolving descriptive text of mental content from human brain activity.Science advances · 2025Article
- Constructed languages are processed by the same brain mechanisms as natural languages.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Semantic language decoding across participants and stimulus modalities.Current biology : CB · 2025Article
- Asymmetric representation of symmetric semantic information in the human brain.Neuroimage. Reports · 2025Article
- What we mean when we say semantic: Toward a multidisciplinary semantic glossary.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2025Review
- Evidence for a compensatory relationship between left- and right-lateralized brain networks.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Constructed languages are processed by the same brain mechanisms as natural languages.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Auditory areas are recruited for naturalistic visual meaning in early deaf people.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Linguistic inputs must be syntactically parsable to fully engage the language network.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Dissociating language and thought in large language models.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2024Review
- The language network as a natural kind within the broader landscape of the human brain.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The ability to combine individual concepts of objects, properties, and actions into complex representations of the world is often associated with language. Yet combinatorial event-level representations can also be constructed from nonverbal input, such as visual scenes. Here, we test whether the language network in the human brain is involved in and necessary for semantic processing of events presented nonverbally. In Experiment 1, we scanned participants with fMRI while they performed a semantic plausibility judgment task versus a difficult perceptual control task on sentences and line drawings that describe/depict simple agent-patient interactions. We found that the language network responded robustly during the semantic task performed on both sentences and pictures (although its response to sentences was stronger). Thus, language regions in healthy adults are engaged during a semantic task performed on pictorial depictions of events. But is this engagement necessary? In Experiment 2, we tested two individuals with global aphasia, who have sustained massive damage to perisylvian language areas and display severe language difficulties, against a group of age-matched control participants. Individuals with aphasia were severely impaired on the task of matching sentences to pictures. However, they performed close to controls in assessing the plausibility of pictorial depictions of agent-patient interactions. Overall, our results indicate that the left frontotemporal language network is recruited but not necessary for semantic processing of nonverbally presented events.
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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.