Pronouns reactivate conceptual representations in human hippocampal neurons
During discourse comprehension, every new word adds to an evolving representation of meaning that accumulates over consecutive sentences and constrains the next words. To minimize repetition and utterance length, languages use pronouns, like the word "she," to refer to nouns and phrases that were previously introduced. It has been suggested that language comprehension requires that pronouns activate the same neuronal representations as the nouns themselves. We recorded from individual neurons in the human hippocampus during a reading task. Cells that were selective to a particular noun were later reactivated by pronouns that refer to the cells' preferred noun. These results imply that concept cells contribute to a rapid and dynamic semantic memory network that is recruited during language comprehension.
Authors
- Pieter R. Roelfsema (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1625-0034)
- Simon Hanslmayr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4448-2147)
- Erik J. Aarnoutse (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7648-250X)
- Vijay Sawlani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6779-1255)
- Sandra Salm (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1392-0140)
- Jessy K. Possel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7924-0485)
- Pieter van Eijsden (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8935-140X)
- Luca D. Kolibius (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5590-6879)
- Elisabeth C.W. van Straaten (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0385-6608)
- Sander Idema (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7267-0255)
- Judith Peters (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0979-1016)
- David T. Rollings (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5277-6589)
- Matthew W. Self (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5731-579X)
- Ramesh Chelvarajah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7253-9046)
- Frédéric Roux (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8854-8879)
- Stanislas Dehaene (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7418-8275)
- D. E. Dijksterhuis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9396-8544)
- N. C. E. van Klink
- J. C. Baaijen
Institutions
- Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NL)
- Institut de la Vision (FR)
- Inserm (FR)
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging (GB)
- Collège de France (FR)
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
- Université Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (GB)
- University Medical Center Utrecht (NL)
- Maastricht University (NL)
- Sorbonne Université (FR)
- Amsterdam Neuroscience (NL)
- CEA Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Kempenhaeghe (NL)
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Lab (FR)
- Amsterdam University Medical Centers (NL)
- Columbia University (US)
- University of Glasgow (GB)
- University of Birmingham (GB)
- Eindhoven University of Technology (NL)
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Amsterdam UMC Location Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2024-09-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adr2813
- Citations
- 23
- Primary Topic
- Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.88
Funders
- Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme