The Language Network Is Recruited but Not Required for Nonverbal Event Semantics.

ABSTRACT: The ability to combine individual concepts of objects, properties, and actions into complex representations of the world is often associated with language. Yet combinatorial event-level representations can also be constructed from nonverbal input, such as visual scenes. Here, we test whether the language network in the human brain is involved in and necessary for semantic processing of events presented nonverbally. In Experiment 1, we scanned participants with fMRI while they performed a semantic plausibility judgment task versus a difficult perceptual control task on sentences and line drawings that describe/depict simple agent-patient interactions. We found that the language network responded robustly during the semantic task performed on both sentences and pictures (although its respons

SUBMITTER: Ivanova AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10158592 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature