Yu Leyao, Dugan Patricia, Doyle Werner, Devinsky Orrin, Friedman Daniel, Flinker Adeen
Department of Biomedical Engineering, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, New York, NY 10016, USA.
Department of Neurology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA.
Cell Rep. 2025 May 27;44(5):115677. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115677. Epub 2025 May 9.
The ability to connect the form and meaning of a concept, known as word retrieval, is fundamental to human communication. While various input modalities could lead to identical word retrieval, the exact neural dynamics supporting this process relevant to daily auditory discourse remain poorly understood. Here, we recorded neurosurgical electrocorticography (ECoG) data from 48 patients and dissociated two key language networks that highly overlap in time and space, critical for word retrieval. Using unsupervised temporal clustering techniques, we found a semantic processing network located in the middle and inferior frontal gyri. This network was distinct from an articulatory planning network in the inferior frontal and precentral gyri, which was invariant to input modalities. Functionally, we confirmed that the semantic processing network encodes word surprisal during sentence perception. These findings elucidate neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the processing of semantic auditory inputs ranging from passive language comprehension to conversational speech.
将概念的形式与意义联系起来的能力，即词汇检索能力，是人类交流的基础。虽然各种输入方式可能导致相同的词汇检索，但与日常听觉话语相关的支持这一过程的确切神经动力学仍知之甚少。在这里，我们记录了48名患者的神经外科皮层脑电图（ECoG）数据，并分离出两个在时间和空间上高度重叠的关键语言网络，这两个网络对词汇检索至关重要。使用无监督时间聚类技术，我们发现了一个位于额中回和额下回的语义处理网络。该网络与额下回和中央前回中的发音计划网络不同，后者对输入方式不敏感。在功能上，我们证实语义处理网络在句子感知过程中编码词汇意外性。这些发现阐明了从被动语言理解到对话言语的语义听觉输入处理背后的神经生理机制。
