Abstract rule generalization for composing novel meaning recruits a frontoparietal control network.

ABSTRACT: The ability to generalize previously learned knowledge to novel situations is crucial for adaptive behavior, representing a form of cognitive flexibility that is particularly relevant in language. Humans excel at combining linguistic building blocks to infer the meanings of novel compositional words, such as "un-reject-able-ish". The neural mechanisms and representations required for this ability remain unclear. To unravel these, we trained participants on a semi-artificial language in which the meanings of compositional words could be derived from known stems and unknown affixes, using abstract relational structure rules (e.g., "good-kla" which means "bad", where "-kla" reverses the meaning of the stem word "good"). According to these rules, word meaning depended on the sequential relatio

SUBMITTER: Zheng XY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12573890 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature