Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41412131›Full record

ArticleNeuron2026

Linguistic coupling between neural systems for speech production and comprehension during real-time dyadic conversations.

Zaid Zada, Samuel A Nastase, Sebastian Speer, Laetitia Mwilambwe-Tshilobo, Lily Tsoi, Shannon M Burns, Emily Falk, Uri Hasson, Diana I Tamir

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PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Neuron, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–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

5 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Review
  3. Review
  4. Review
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Zaid ZadaDepartment of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. Electronic address: zzada@princeton.edu.
Samuel A NastaseDepartment of Psychology and Center for Computational Language Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
Sebastian SpeerDepartment of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Laetitia Mwilambwe-TshiloboDepartment of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Lily TsoiDepartment of Psychology, Caldwell University, Caldwell, NJ 07006, USA.
Shannon M BurnsDepartment of Psychological Science, Pomona College, Claremont, CA 91711, USA; Department of Neuroscience, Pomona College, Claremont, CA 91711, USA.
Emily FalkAnnenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Uri HassonDepartment of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Diana I TamirDepartment of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.

Funding

Speaker-listener coupling: a novel neural approach for assessing communicationDP1HD091948 · NICHD · PRINCETON UNIVERSITY · PI HASSON, URI · 2016 to 2021
$5.6M
CRCNS: Building and testing computational models of the neural basis of natural communicationR01DC022534 · NIDCD · PRINCETON UNIVERSITY · PI Uri Hasson · 2024 to 2026
$1.2M
The cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting naturalistic dyadic social interactionsR21MH127284 · NIMH · PRINCETON UNIVERSITY · PI TAMIR, DIANA · 2022 to 2023
$446k
NICHD NIH HHS DP1 HD091948NIDCD NIH HHS R01 DC022534NIMH NIH HHS R21 MH127284
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The core use of human language is to send complex ideas from one mind to another. In everyday conversations, comprehension and production are intertwined, as speakers and listeners alternate roles. Nonetheless, the neural systems underlying these faculties are typically studied in isolation, using paradigms that cannot capture interactive communication. Here, we used fMRI hyperscanning to simultaneously record dyads engaged in real-time conversations. We used language model embeddings to quantify the degree to which production and comprehension systems rely on shared neural representations, both within and across brains. We found that both processes key into overlapping neural systems, with similar neural tuning for both processes, spanning the cortical language network. Speaker-listener coupling extended beyond the language network into areas associated with social cognition. Our results suggest that the neural systems for speech comprehension and production align with common linguistic features encoded in a broad cortical network for language and communication.

Indexed as

BrainComprehensionSpeechSpeech PerceptionAdultBrain MappingFemaleHumansLanguageLinguisticsMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleNerve NetYoung Adultbrain-to-brain couplingcommunicationconversationsencoding modelshyperscanninglarge language modelsLLMsnaturalistic paradigmspeech comprehensionspeech production

Identifiers

PMID41412131
PMCPMC12927206

What OpenQuestion holds

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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.