Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42094556›Full record

ArticlebioRxiv : the preprint server for biology2026

Premotor cortex uses a compositional neural geometry to plan words.

Benyamin Abramovich Krasa, Erin M Kunz, Foram Kamdar, Donald Avansino, Nick Hahn, Akansha Singh, Nicholas S Card, Maitreyee Wairagkar, Carrina Iacobacci, Leigh R Hochberg and 5 more

Abstract readPreprint
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing 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

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

15 authors.

Benyamin Abramovich KrasaNeuroscience Graduate Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Erin M KunzWu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Foram KamdarDepartment of Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Donald AvansinoDepartment of Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Nick HahnDepartment of Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Akansha SinghDepartment of Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Nicholas S CardDepartment of Neurological Surgery, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
Maitreyee WairagkarDepartment of Neurological Surgery, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
Carrina IacobacciDepartment of Neurological Surgery, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
Leigh R HochbergSchool of Engineering and Carney Institute for Brain Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
David M BrandmanDepartment of Neurological Surgery, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
Sergey D StaviskyDepartment of Neurological Surgery, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
Jaimie M HendersonWu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Francis R WillettDepartment of Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Shaul DruckmannWu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Funding

Engaging new cognitive and motor signals to improve communication prosthesesR01DC014034 · NIDCD · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI JAIMIE M HENDERSON · 2015 to 2026
$8.2M
Intuitive, complete neural control of tablet computers for communicationU01DC017844 · NIDCD · BROWN UNIVERSITY · PI HOCHBERG, LEIGH R · 2019 to 2025
$4.3M
Understanding and restoring speech production using an intracortical brain-computer interfaceDP2DC021055 · NIDCD · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · PI STAVISKY, SERGEY · 2022 to 2025
$2.3M
NIDCD NIH HHS DP2 DC021055NIDCD NIH HHS R01 DC014034NIDCD NIH HHS U01 DC017844
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Speech requires precise serial ordering of words and phonemes into novel combinations. To accomplish this, the brain is believed to flexibly prepare utterances before producing them, even allowing pronunciation of never-before spoken words. To discover how neural populations achieve this, intracortical activity from premotor cortex was recorded while two speech neuroprosthesis pilot clinical trial participants attempted to speak factorially-balanced phoneme sequences. During preparation, activity encoded not only the next-phoneme, but multiple upcoming phoneme positions spanning whole words. We found that word-level plans were formed by compositionally combining phoneme representations, a mechanism that may enable efficient planning of novel sequences. When utterances contained more than one word, premotor cortex activity was largely limited to the first word, suggesting that articulatory planning is segmented by higher-order features. Together, these results reveal a compositional, hierarchically-segemented planning geometry, potentially a universal neural strategy for sequence organization across higher levels of language.

Identifiers

PMID42094556
PMCPMC13142457

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Registered trials

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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.