Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Language and Cognition01:27

Language and Cognition

401
Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.
401
Components of Language01:24

Components of Language

345
Language, whether spoken, signed, or written, consists of specific components: lexicon and grammar. The lexicon is the vocabulary of a language, comprising its words. Grammar is the set of rules used to convey meaning through the lexicon. For example, English grammar adds “-ed” to most verbs to indicate past tense. Words are formed by combining phonemes, which are the basic sound units of a language. Different languages have different sets of phonemes (e.g., “ah” vs.
345
Language Development01:22

Language Development

420
Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
420
Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language01:10

Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language

955
Language is a system of communication that allows the expression of thoughts, ideas, and feelings. The brain processes language in both hemispheres.
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...
955
Language01:16

Language

263
Language is a unique communication system that uses words and systematic rules to organize and transmit information. Unlike other forms of communication, which may involve postures, movements, odors, or vocalizations, language relies on symbols and grammar. This makes human communication distinct from that of other species, who also communicate but do not use language in the same way humans do.
Corballis and Suddendorf (2007) and Tomasello and Rakoczy (2003) highlight the role of language in...
263
Neural Circuits01:25

Neural Circuits

1.4K
Neural circuits and neuronal pools are two of the main structures found in the nervous system. Neural circuits are networks of neurons that work together to carry out a specific task or process. They consist of interconnected neurons and glial cells, which provide structural and metabolic support.
Neuronal pools are collections of nerve cells with similar functions and interact through chemical and electrical signals. These pools include both interneurons (the central neural circuit nodes that...
1.4K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Preoperative prediction of lymph node metastasis in lung adenocarcinoma based on tumor size and carcinoembryonic antigen.

Journal of thoracic disease·2026
Same author

Evidence from formal logical reasoning reveals that the language of thought is not natural language.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same author

A <i>number simplex</i> in the human medial temporal lobe.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

You can't fight in here! This is BBS!

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2026
Same author

The language network responds robustly to sentences across tasks.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2026
Same author

The extended language network: Language-responsive brain areas whose contributions to language remain to be discovered.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 9, 2025

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology
05:38

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

Published on: June 29, 2021

2.4K

Composition is the Core Driver of the Language-selective Network.

Francis Mollica1, Matthew Siegelman2, Evgeniia Diachek3

  • 1School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne.

Neurobiology of Language (Cambridge, Mass.)
|February 16, 2023
PubMed
Summary

The brain

Keywords:
compositionalityfMRIinformation theorymutual informationsemanticssyntax

More Related Videos

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody
09:09

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody

Published on: September 27, 2024

501
Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
06:48

Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment

Published on: June 25, 2019

9.2K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Aug 9, 2025

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology
05:38

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

Published on: June 29, 2021

2.4K
Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody
09:09

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody

Published on: September 27, 2024

501
Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
06:48

Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment

Published on: June 25, 2019

9.2K

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Linguistics
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • The frontotemporal language network responds to sentences, but the specific linguistic features driving this response are debated.
  • Natural language input confounds word order with semantic/syntactic composition.
  • Psycholinguistic research suggests language processing is robust to word order violations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether semantic and syntactic composition, rather than strict word order, drives the frontotemporal language network's response.
  • To test if the language network's response is maintained even with grammatical word order violations.

Main Methods:

  • Two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments were conducted with 47 participants.
  • Participants were presented with naturalistic sentences with increasing numbers of local word swaps, creating syntactically degraded but locally coherent strings.
  • The blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response in the language network was measured.

Main Results:

  • The language network's BOLD response remained robust despite word order degradation.
  • Response magnitude decreased only when word swaps excessively separated combinable words, hindering local composition.
  • This indicates that the preservation of local dependency relationships is key.

Conclusions:

  • The core linguistic computation supported by the language network is composition, not adherence to strict word order.
  • The language network's robust response to naturalistic input relies on the possibility of composition, even with grammatical violations.
  • This finding highlights the flexibility of the brain's language processing system.