Biology subjects

Udden, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Udden, J..

6 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Conversation in fMRI: DMN Activates During Live Mentalizing

Although language might have evolved in a conversational setting, neural language processing is rarely studied in this setting. It is also important to delineate the roles of networks interacting with the language network, such as the default mode network and networks subserving social cognition or cognitive control. We studied the fundamental question of how conversational production and comprehension processes may differ. By acquiring fMRI data of participants engaging in conversations on ethical dilemmas with a confederate, we aimed to study extra-linguistic areas during live mentalizing, crucially with long (10 min) conversations. A subject-specific network analysis was used to complement group-averaged whole-brain analysis. The results replicate asymmetries between production and comprehension already observed using short conversations. This included left inferior frontal gyrus preferences for production and superior and middle temporal gyri preferences for comprehension. Activation in the posterior dorsal medial prefrontal cortex was specific to production, a result that is stable across conversational durations. Notably, we found preferential activity of the default mode network (DMN) during comprehension, specifically during longer conversations. The frontoparietal network for control (FPN) showed the same pattern, although it was less robust. This might indicate simultaneous self-reflective, Theory of Mind, and/or situational processing during comprehension, potentially due to lower conversational pressures, compared to production. The subnetwork DN-B was more strongly activated than DN-A, across both comprehension and production, suggesting that Theory of Mind remains continuously active throughout conversation. Our findings thus advance the understanding of how several networks contribute to production vs comprehension during conversation.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Neural adolescent pragmatic development mirrors pragmatic differences in adulthood: an fMRI-study

Pragmatic development is still ongoing during adolescence. However, the developmental trajectory during this period is understudied and the underlying neural correlates of pragmatic development are unknown. In this study, we used an established fMRI paradigm contrasting indirect and direct speech acts in a newly acquired adolescent sample (n = 51) and a previously collected adult sample (n = 57). The adolescent sample was subdivided into Young (ages 13-15) and Mid (ages 16-18) groups and the adult sample (Old, ages 20-36) was split based on pragmatic skill level (established in separate behavioral tests). We observed age-related increases in activity in the posterior medial superior frontal gyrus, and a combination of age-related differences and adult individual differences in the dorsal aspects of the posterior cingulate cortex (dPCC). Both clusters were located outside the classic perisylvian language network. We interpret the dPCC findings in terms of its overlap with the Default Mode Network. Similar activity in the dPCC between adolescents and adults with lower pragmatic skill is consistent with a view that a delayed adolescent development may lead to persistent pragmatic difficulties in adulthood. The findings also indicate development towards context-specific processing. By studying adolescence, a presumably uniquely human extended developmental period, we provide a rare empirical angle on the question of which aspects of brain and cultural evolution contributed to the human communicative faculty.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Functional segregation of conversational production and comprehension when using word predictability

The extent to which the language production and comprehension systems overlap remains debated. We address this debate using a dataset where participants engaged in unscripted conversations, while scanned with fMRI. Word predictability was hypothesized to rely on different processes, depending on whether the word was uttered or heard. We employed the information-theoretic measure of surprisal (the negative log probability of a word occurring, given the preceding context) as a parametric modulator, controlling for the words overall frequency. The results for production surprisal revealed activation in the left superior and inferior frontal gyri and motor areas. A large bilateral cluster in the posterior part of the medial prefrontal cortex extended from the supplementary motor area to the anterior cingulate cortex. The results for comprehension surprisal replicated findings from non-conversational contexts, showing involvement of the bilateral superior temporal gyrus/sulcus, presumably supporting bottom-up processes for prediction error detection. Importantly, no overlap in the neural infrastructure of production and comprehension was observed, suggesting that word predictability processes in production and comprehension differ. We suggest that while the comprehension system handles prediction errors, the production system minimizes these errors through adaptation, all to achieve successful communication.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Conversational production and comprehension: fMRI-evidence reminiscent of the classic Broca-Wernicke model

A key question in neurolinguistics is whether language production and comprehension share neural infrastructure, but this question has not been addressed in the context of actual conversation. We utilized a public fMRI dataset where participants (N=24) engaged in unscripted conversations with a confederate outside the scanner via an audio-video link. We provide evidence indicating that production and comprehension, in a conversational setting, diverge with respect to how they modulate the recruitment of regions in the left-lateralized perisylvian language network. Activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus was stronger in production than in comprehension. Compared to production, comprehension showed stronger recruitment of the left anterior middle temporal gyrus and superior temporal sulcus, but this was not the case for the posterior aspect of these loci. Although our results are reminiscent of the classic Broca-Wernicke model, the anterior temporal activation is a notable difference from that model. This is one of the findings which may be a consequence of the conversational setting, another being that conversational production activated what we interpret as higher-level socio-pragmatic processes. In conclusion, we present evidence supporting that the above-mentioned frontal vs temporal regions in the language network are functionally segregated during conversation.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Supramodal sentence processing in the human brain: fMRI evidence for the influence of syntactic complexity in more than 200 participants

This study investigated two questions. One is to which degree sentence processing beyond single words is independent of the input modality (speech vs. reading). The second question is which parts of the network recruited by both modalities is sensitive to syntactic complexity. These questions were investigated by having more than 200 participants read or listen to well-formed sentences or series of unconnected words. A largely left-hemisphere fronto-temporoparietal network was found to be supramodal in nature, i.e. independent of input modality. In addition, the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LpMTG) were most clearly associated with left-branching complexity. The left anterior middle temporal gyrus (LaMTG) showed the greatest sensitivity to sentences that differed in right-branching complexity. Moreover, activity in LIFG and LpMTG increased from sentence onset to end, in parallel with an increase of the left-branching complexity. While LIFG, bilateral anterior and posterior MTG and left inferior parietal lobe (LIPL) all contribute to the supramodal unification processes, the results suggest that these regions differ in their respective contributions to syntactic complexity related processing. The consequences of these findings for neurobiological models of language processing are discussed.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Frequency-specific directed interactions in the human brain network for language

The brains remarkable capacity for language requires bidirectional interactions between functionally specialized brain regions. We used magnetoencephalography to investigate interregional interactions in the brain network for language, while 102 participants were reading sentences. Using Granger causality analysis, we identified inferior frontal cortex and anterior temporal regions to receive widespread input, and middle temporal regions to send widespread output. This fits well with the notion that these regions play a central role in language processing. Characterization of the functional topology of this network, using data-driven matrix factorization, which allowed for partitioning into a set of subnetworks, revealed directed connections at distinct frequencies of interaction. Connections originating from temporal regions peaked at alpha frequency, whereas connections originating from frontal and parietal regions peaked at beta frequency. These findings indicate that processing different types of linguistic information may depend on the contributions of distinct brain rhythms.\n\nOne Sentence SummaryCommunication between language relevant areas in the brain is supported by rhythmic synchronization, where different rhythms reflect the direction of information flow.

neuroscience↗