Interpretation-mediated changes in neural activity during language comprehension
Open accessAbstract
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we identified cortical regions mediating interpretive processes that take place during language comprehension. We manipulated participants' interpretation of texts by asking them to focus on action-, space-, or time-related features while listening to identical short stories. We identify several cortical regions where activity varied significantly in response to this attention manipulation, even though the content being processed was exactly the same. Activity in the posterior and anterior sections of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), which are thought to have different sensitivities to high-level language processing, was modulated by the listeners' attentional focus, but in ways that were quite different. The posterior left IFG (Pars Opercularis) showed different activity levels for the three conditions. However, a population coding analysis demonstrated similar distributions of activity across conditions. This suggests that while the gain of the response in the Pars Opercularis was modulated, its core organization was relatively invariant across the experimental conditions. In the anterior left IFG (Pars Triangularis), the analysis of population codes revealed different activity patterns between conditions: there was little similarity between activity during time-attention and action- and space-attention, however there were similar activity patterns while attending to space and action information. In addition, both the left superior temporal gyrus and sulcus showed greater activity in the space and action attention conditions when contrasted with time attention. We discuss these findings in light of work on the role of left IFG in processing semantic information in language, and in light of theories suggesting that temporal information in language is processed in the brain using similar mechanisms as spatial information. Our findings suggest that a substantial source of variance in neural activity during language comprehension emerges from the internally-driven, information-seeking preferences of listeners rather than the syntactic or semantic properties of a text.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
This study is the first to identify high-level brain regions that distinguish idiosyncratic, spontaneous differences in how an ambiguous narrative is interpreted.
“This work is the first to identify high-level regions of the brain that can discriminate between idiosyncratic, spontaneous differences in the interpretation of an ambiguous narrative.”
From Shared understanding of narratives is correlated with shared neural responses (2019) · cites this paper as Cooper et al., 2011
The results align with earlier studies that directly manipulated interpretation by directing attention, changing perspective, or providing biasing context.
“These results are consistent with previous studies that directly manipulated interpretation by directing attention to different aspects of a spoken narrative (Cooper et al., 2011), changing perspective (Lahnakoski et al., 2014), or biasing with contextual information (Yeshurun et al., 2017b).”
From Shared understanding of narratives is correlated with shared neural responses (2019) · cites this paper as Cooper et al., 2011
The Movie group was made larger, following earlier ISC studies that compared conditions.
“A larger sample size for the Movie group was selected based on previous work using ISC to detect differences among conditions (Cooper et al., 2011; Lahnakoski et al., 2014; Schmälzle et al., 2015; Yeshurun et al., 2017b, 2017a).”
From Shared understanding of narratives is correlated with shared neural responses (2019) · cites this paper as Cooper et al., 2011
Comprehenders' mood or the types of information people look for in a text also impacts activation in these regions.
“Finally, comprehenders' mood (Egidi & Caramazza, 2014) or the types of information people look for in a text (Cooper, Hasson, & Small, 2011) also impacts activation in these regions.”
From Grounding the neurobiology of language in first principles: The necessity of non-language-centric explanations for language comprehension (2018) · cites this paper as Cooper, Hasson, & Small, 2011
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
AFNI: Software for analysis and visualization of functional magnetic resonance neuroimages
Cox, R. W. (1996) · Computers and Biomedical Research · doi:10.1006/cbmr.1996.0014 · Cited by 10,913 · see citing works
<i>The Brain's Default Network</i>: <i>Anatomy, Function, and Relevance to Disease</i>
Buckner, R. L., Andrews‐Hanna, J. R., & Schacter, D. L. (2008) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1196/annals.1440.011 · Cited by 9,761 · see citing works
Fischl, B., Salat, D. H., Busa, E., Albert, M., Dieterich, M., Haselgrove, C., van der Kouwe, A., Killiany, R., Kennedy, D., Klaveness, S., et al. (2002) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/s0896-6273(02)00569-x · Cited by 8,610 · see citing works
Cortical Surface-Based Analysis
Fischl, B., Sereno, M. I., & Dale, A. M. (1999) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1006/nimg.1998.0396 · Cited by 6,147 · see citing works
Strategies of Discourse Comprehension
Staczek, J. J., van Dijk, T. A., & Kintsch, W. (1985) · Modern Language Journal · doi:10.2307/326517 · Cited by 5,377 · see citing works
Automatically Parcellating the Human Cerebral Cortex
Fischl, B. R. (2003) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/bhg087 · Cited by 4,208 · see citing works
Forman, S. D., Cohen, J. D., Fitzgerald, M., Eddy, W. F., Mintun, M. A., & Noll, D. C. (1995) · Magnetic Resonance in Medicine · doi:10.1002/mrm.1910330508 · Cited by 3,202 · see citing works
Buckner, R. L., & Carroll, D. C. (2007) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2006.11.004 · Cited by 2,691 · see citing works
A theory of magnitude: common cortical metrics of time, space and quantity
Walsh, V. (2003) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2003.09.002 · Cited by 2,044 · see citing works
Bookheimer, S. (2002) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.25.112701.142946 · Cited by 1,450 · see citing works
Poldrack, R. A., Wagner, A. D., Prull, M. W., Desmond, J. E., Glover, G. H., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (1999) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1006/nimg.1999.0441 · Cited by 1,448 · see citing works
Listening to Action-related Sentences Activates Fronto-parietal Motor Circuits
Tettamanti, M., Buccino, G., Saccuman, M. C., Gallese, V., Danna, M., Scifo, P., Fazio, F., Rizzolatti, G., Cappa, S. F., & Perani, D. (2005) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/0898929053124965 · Cited by 1,239 · see citing works
A Parametric Manipulation of Factors Affecting Task-induced Deactivation in Functional Neuroimaging
McKiernan, K. A., Kaufman, J. N., Kucera-Thompson, J., & Binder, J. R. (2003) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/089892903321593117 · Cited by 1,080 · see citing works
The Roles of Body and Mind in Abstract Thought
Boroditsky, L., & Ramscar, M. (2002) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00434 · Cited by 887 · see citing works
Functions of the left superior frontal gyrus in humans: a lesion study
Boisguéheneuc, F. D., Lévy, R., Emmanuelle Volle, C., Seassau, M., Duffau, H., Kinkingnéhun, S., Samson, Y., Zhang, S., & Dubois, B. (2006) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/awl244 · Cited by 856 · see citing works
Conceptual Metaphor in Everyday Language
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980) · The Journal of Philosophy · doi:10.2307/2025464 · Cited by 790 · see citing works
Morosan, P., Rademacher, J., Schleicher, A., Amunts, K., Schormann, T., & Zilles, K. (2001) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1006/nimg.2000.0715 · Cited by 761 · see citing works
The extended language network: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on text comprehension
Ferstl, E. C., Neumann, J., Bogler, C., & von Cramon, D. Y. (2008) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.20422 · Cited by 703 · see citing works
Dimensions of situation model construction in narrative comprehension.
Zwaan, R. A., Magliano, J. P., & Graesser, A. C. (1995) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1037/0278-7393.21.2.386 · Cited by 652 · see citing works
Mental Models in Narrative Comprehension
Bower, G. H., & Morrow, D. G. (1990) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.2403694 · Cited by 576 · see citing works
The Human Brain: Surface, Three-Dimensional Sectional Anatomy and MRI
Duvernoy, H. M., Cabanis, E. A., & Vannson, J. L. (1991) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 574 · see citing works
Effects of Repetition and Competition on Activity in Left Prefrontal Cortex during Word Generation
Thompson‐Schill, S. L., D’Esposito, M., & Kan, I. P. (1999) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/s0896-6273(00)80804-1 · Cited by 547 · see citing works
Language in context: Emergent features of word, sentence, and narrative comprehension
Xu, J., Kemeny, S., Park, G., Frattali, C., & Braun, A. (2005) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.12.013 · Cited by 502 · see citing works
A new method for improving functional-to-structural MRI alignment using local Pearson correlation
Saad, Z. S., Glen, D. R., Chen, G., Beauchamp, M. S., Desai, R., & Cox, R. W. (2009) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.09.037 · Cited by 405 · see citing works
Semantic integration in reading: engagement of the right hemisphere during discourse processing
George, M. S., Marta Kutas, A., Martı́nez, A., & Sereno, M. I. (1999) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/122.7.1317 · Cited by 393 · see citing works
Reading Stories Activates Neural Representations of Visual and Motor Experiences
Speer, N. K., Reynolds, J. R., Swallow, K. M., & Zacks, J. M. (2009) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02397.x · Cited by 385 · see citing works
Friedemann Pulvermüller, A. (1999) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/9.5.497 · Cited by 378 · see citing works
GOUGH, P. M., Nobre, A. C., & Devlin, J. T. (2005) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.2307-05.2005 · Cited by 370 · see citing works
The neural response to emotional prosody, as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging
Mitchell, R. L. C., Elliott, R., Barry, M., Cruttenden, A., & Woodruff, P. W. R. (2003) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/s0028-3932(03)00017-4 · Cited by 329 · see citing works
Molnar-Szakacs, I., Iacoboni, M., Koski, L., & Mazziotta, J. C. (2005) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/bhh199 · Cited by 266 · see citing works
Sports experience changes the neural processing of action language
Beilock, S. L., Lyons, I. M., Mattarella-Micke, A., Nusbaum, H. C., & Small, S. L. (2008) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0803424105 · Cited by 263 · see citing works
Self-citationFunctional heterogeneity of left inferior frontal cortex as revealed by fMRI
Paulesu, E., Goldacre, B., Scifo, P., Cappa, S. F., Gilardi, M. C., Castiglioni, I., Perani, D., & Fazio, F. (1997) · Neuroreport · doi:10.1097/00001756-199705260-00042 · Cited by 257 · see citing works
Spiral K‐space MR imaging of cortical activation
Noll, D. C., Cohen, J. D., Meyer, C. H., & Schneider, W. (1995) · Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging · doi:10.1002/jmri.1880050112 · Cited by 254 · see citing works
Saygın, A. P., McCullough, S., Alač, M., & Emmorey, K. D. (2009) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21388 · Cited by 222 · see citing works
Task-dependency of the Neural Correlates of Episodic Encoding as Measured by fMRI
Otten, L. J. (2001) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/11.12.1150 · Cited by 216 · see citing works
SUMA: An interface for surface-based intra- and inter-subject analysis with AFNI
Saad, Z. S., Reynolds, R. C., Argall, B., JAPEE, S. A., & Cox, R. W. (2005) · IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) · doi:10.1109/isbi.2004.1398837 · Cited by 213 · see citing works
Sridharan, D., Levitin, D. J., Chafe, C. H., Berger, J., & Menon, V. (2007) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2007.07.003 · Cited by 193 · see citing works
Task-dependent organization of brain regions active during rest
Hasson, U., Nusbaum, H. C., & Small, S. L. (2009) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0903253106 · Cited by 183 · see citing works
Self-citationSpecialisation in Broca's region for semantic, phonological, and syntactic fluency?
Heim, S., Eickhoff, S. B., & Amunts, K. (2008) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.01.009 · Cited by 177 · see citing works
Dick, A. S., Susan Goldin-meadow, A., Hasson, U., Skipper, J. I., & Small, S. L. (2009) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.20774 · Cited by 152 · see citing works
Self-citationThe spatial and temporal meanings of English prepositions can be independently impaired
Kemmerer, D. L. (2004) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.06.025 · Cited by 138 · see citing works
Deen, B., & McCarthy, G. (2010) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.01.028 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
The effects of attention on speech perception: an fMRI study
Hugdahl, K., Thomsen, T., Ersland, L., Morten Rimol, L., & Niemi, J. (2003) · Brain and Language · doi:10.1016/s0093-934x(02)00500-x · Cited by 93 · see citing works
Out of sight, out of mind: Occlusion and the accessibility of information in narrative comprehension
Horton, W. S., & Rapp, D. N. (2003) · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review · doi:10.3758/bf03196473 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
Brain networks subserving the extraction of sentence information and its encoding to memory
Hasson, U., Nusbaum, H. C., & Small, S. L. (2007) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm016 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Self-citationConjunction group analysis: An alternative to mixed/random effect analysis
Heller, R., Golland, Y., Malach, R., & Benjamini, Y. (2007) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.05.051 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Assessing the influence of dimensional focus during situation model construction
Therriault, D. J., Rinck, M., & Zwaan, R. A. (2006) · Memory & Cognition · doi:10.3758/bf03193388 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Time, space and emotion: fMRI reveals content-specific activation during text comprehension
Ferstl, E. C., & von Cramon, D. Y. (2007) · Neuroscience Letters · doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2007.09.046 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Friese, U., Rutschmann, R., Raabe, M., & Schmalhofer, F. (2008) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2008.20141 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
English Metaphors for Language: Motivations, Conventions, and Creativity
Sweetser, E. E. (1992) · Poetics Today · doi:10.2307/1773295 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Passive reactivation of background information from long-term memory during reading
Mo, L., Liu, H., Jin, H., Ng, Y., & Lin, C. (2006) · Neuroreport · doi:10.1097/wnr.0b013e328010475c · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Van Dijk TA Kintsch W Strategies for discourse comprehension 1983 New York Academic Press
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The default mode network: where the idiosyncratic self meets the shared social world
Yeshurun, Y., Nguyen, M., & Hasson, U. (2021) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41583-020-00420-w · Cited by 682 · see citing works
Self-citationCooper, R. J., Selb, J., Gagnon, L., Phillip, D., Schytz, H. W., Iversen, H. K., Ashina, M., & Boas, D. A. (2012) · Frontiers in Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnins.2012.00147 · Cited by 421 · see citing works
Shared understanding of narratives is correlated with shared neural responses
Nguyen, M., Vanderwal, T., & Hasson, U. (2019) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.09.010 · Cited by 304 · see citing works
Self-citationSame Story, Different Story: The Neural Representation of Interpretive Frameworks
Yeshurun, Y., Swanson, S., Simony, E., Chen, J., Lazaridi, C., Honey, C. J., & Hasson, U. (2017) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797616682029 · Cited by 300 · see citing works
Self-citationBevilacqua, D., Davidesco, I., Wan, L., Chaloner, K., Rowland, J., Ding, M., Poeppel, D., & Dikker, S. (2019) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn_a_01274 · Cited by 312 · see citing works
Synchronous brain activity across individuals underlies shared psychological perspectives
Lahnakoski, J. M., Glerean, E., Jääskeläinen, I. P., Hyönä, J., Hari, R., Sams, M., & Nummenmaa, L. (2014) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.06.022 · Cited by 180 · see citing works
Hasson, U., Egidi, G., Marelli, M., & Willems, R. M. (2018) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2018.06.018 · Cited by 157 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Cooper, E. A., Hasson, U., & Small, S. L.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- University of Trento (IT)
- University of Chicago (US)
- Corresponding author
- Cooper, Emily A.
- Venue
- NeuroImage
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-04
- Volume
- 55
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 1314-1323
- ISSN
- 1053-8119 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3049859
- OpenAlex
- W2029000423
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- NeuroImage (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Institutional Research Information System (Università degli Studi di Trento) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Health (NIH RO1-DC03378)
- University of Chicago
- Department of Defense
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Keywords
- language comprehension, attentional focus, left inferior frontal gyrus, pars opercularis, pars triangularis, superior temporal gyrus, superior temporal sulcus, temporal processing, spatial data processing, population coding, semantic processing
- MeSH terms
- Acoustic Stimulation, Attention, Brain, Brain Mapping, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Language, Functional Laterality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Oxygen, Semantics, Space Perception, Comprehension, Narration, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
