Low-frequency cortical activity reflects context-dependent parsing of word sequences
Summary: During speech listening, it has been hypothesized that the brain builds representations of linguistic structures like sentences, which are tracked by neural activity entrained to the rhythm of these structures. Alternatively, others proposed that these sentence-tracking neural activities ma...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2025-06-01
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| Series: | iScience |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004225009113 |
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| author | Honghua Chen Minhui Zhang Tianyi Ye Max A. Wolpert Nai Ding |
| author_facet | Honghua Chen Minhui Zhang Tianyi Ye Max A. Wolpert Nai Ding |
| author_sort | Honghua Chen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Summary: During speech listening, it has been hypothesized that the brain builds representations of linguistic structures like sentences, which are tracked by neural activity entrained to the rhythm of these structures. Alternatively, others proposed that these sentence-tracking neural activities may reflect the predictability or syntactic properties of individual words. Here, to disentangle the neural responses to sentences and words, we design word sequences that are parsed into different sentences in different contexts. By analyzing neural activity recorded by magnetoencephalography, we find that low-frequency neural activity strongly depends on context—the difference between MEG responses to the same word sequence in two contexts yields a low-frequency signal, which precisely tracks sentences. The predictability and syntactic properties of words can partly explain the neural response in each context but not the difference between contexts. In summary, low-frequency neural activity encodes sentences and can reliably reflect how same-word sequences are parsed in different contexts. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-0b9c5c0e17bb4d5085f6af0e0010083c |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2589-0042 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | iScience |
| spelling | doaj-art-0b9c5c0e17bb4d5085f6af0e0010083c2025-08-20T01:52:55ZengElsevieriScience2589-00422025-06-0128611265010.1016/j.isci.2025.112650Low-frequency cortical activity reflects context-dependent parsing of word sequencesHonghua Chen0Minhui Zhang1Tianyi Ye2Max A. Wolpert3Nai Ding4Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, ChinaKey Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, ChinaDepartment of Linguistics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USAKey Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China; Corresponding authorKey Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China; Nanhu Brain-computer Interface Institute, Hangzhou, China; The State Key Lab of Brain-Machine Intelligence, The MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science & Brain-machine Integration, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China; Corresponding authorSummary: During speech listening, it has been hypothesized that the brain builds representations of linguistic structures like sentences, which are tracked by neural activity entrained to the rhythm of these structures. Alternatively, others proposed that these sentence-tracking neural activities may reflect the predictability or syntactic properties of individual words. Here, to disentangle the neural responses to sentences and words, we design word sequences that are parsed into different sentences in different contexts. By analyzing neural activity recorded by magnetoencephalography, we find that low-frequency neural activity strongly depends on context—the difference between MEG responses to the same word sequence in two contexts yields a low-frequency signal, which precisely tracks sentences. The predictability and syntactic properties of words can partly explain the neural response in each context but not the difference between contexts. In summary, low-frequency neural activity encodes sentences and can reliably reflect how same-word sequences are parsed in different contexts.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004225009113NeuroscienceCognitive neuroscience |
| spellingShingle | Honghua Chen Minhui Zhang Tianyi Ye Max A. Wolpert Nai Ding Low-frequency cortical activity reflects context-dependent parsing of word sequences iScience Neuroscience Cognitive neuroscience |
| title | Low-frequency cortical activity reflects context-dependent parsing of word sequences |
| title_full | Low-frequency cortical activity reflects context-dependent parsing of word sequences |
| title_fullStr | Low-frequency cortical activity reflects context-dependent parsing of word sequences |
| title_full_unstemmed | Low-frequency cortical activity reflects context-dependent parsing of word sequences |
| title_short | Low-frequency cortical activity reflects context-dependent parsing of word sequences |
| title_sort | low frequency cortical activity reflects context dependent parsing of word sequences |
| topic | Neuroscience Cognitive neuroscience |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004225009113 |
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