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Low-frequency modulations bridge the language and default mode networks
Oscar Woolnough1, Elliot Murphy1, Stanislas Dehaene2
1Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery, McGovern Medical School at UT Health Houston, Houston, TX 77030, United States; Texas Institute for Restorative Neurotechnologies, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, United States.
Progress in Neurobiology
|July 24, 2026
Summary
Brain networks involved in reading, the language network (LN) and default mode network (DMN), show synchronized alpha-band activity. This synchronized activity suggests coordinated neural processes crucial for understanding complex language.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Computational Linguistics
Background:
- Reading involves integrating word meanings into complex representations.
- This process recruits the core language network (LN) and domain-general networks like the default mode network (DMN).
- Interactions between LN and DMN are crucial for semantic integration but remain incompletely understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the dynamic interactions between the language network (LN) and the default mode network (DMN) during sentence comprehension.
- To identify neural oscillations and connectivity patterns underlying semantic integration.
- To explore the role of alpha-band activity in coordinating brain networks during reading.
Main Methods:
- Intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) was used in 32 participants reading sentences and wordlists.
- Instantaneous frequency, power, and phase (4-30 Hz) were extracted from LN and DMN regions.
- Granger causality analysis was applied to assess directed functional connectivity.
Main Results:
- A complex low-frequency modulation, specifically a ramping of alpha-band instantaneous frequency, was observed during sentence reading compared to wordlists.
- This alpha-band ramping occurred robustly across both LN and DMN.
- Granger causal networks revealed coinciding ramping increases in alpha-band connectivity within and between LN and DMN.
Conclusions:
- Alpha-band modulations reflect dynamic interactions between the core language network and broader domain-general networks.
- These interactions are critical for higher-order semantic integration.
- Alpha-band activity may facilitate the derivation of crossmodal knowledge from linguistic input.
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