Adjective conjunction as a window into the LATL’s contribution to conceptual combination

Though a large literature implicates the left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) for combinatory operations, recent MEG studies have suggested that it is specifically involved in the composition of complex concepts, rather than syntactic or semantic composition in a more general sense. To further specify the computational contribution of the LATL, we tested whether LATL effects as observed in MEG require a situation in which features combine to form a single coherent entity representation or whether the relevant computation simply requires the attribution of features to a set but not necessarily to the same members of the set. Under the former hypothesis, the LATL would be sensitive to the number of features added to the representation of a single entity whereas under the latter account, LATL activity would reflect the total number of features integrated across different members of a set. To test this, we employed conjunctions of two adjectives whose lexical semantics were varied such that they either allowed or disallowed the attribution of their denoted properties to the same members of a set, i.e., the properties were either compatible or incompatible. The compatible properties resulted in so-called intersective and the incompatible in so-called collective readings. Our results show that the LATL tracks the number of features attributed to an individual as opposed to the number of features attributed to a set. Interestingly, the reverse pattern was found in the right ATL, demonstrating that although this region often shows parallel effects to the LATL, its functional contribution is clearly distinct.

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title: Auditory Language Comprehension: An Event-Related fMRI Study on the Processing of Syntactic and Lexical Information
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title: The Cortical Representation of Speech
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title: Localizing components of a complex task: sentence processing and working memory
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title: Simple Composition: A Magnetoencephalography Investigation into the Comprehension of Minimal Linguistic Phrases
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title: Basic linguistic composition recruits the left anterior temporal lobe and left angular gyrus during both listening and reading.
abstract: Language is experienced primarily through one of two mediums--spoken words and written text. Although substantially different in form, these two linguistic vehicles possess similar powers of expression. Consequently, one goal for the cognitive neuroscience of language is to determine where, if anywhere, along the neural path from sensory stimulation to ultimate comprehension these two processing streams converge. In the present study, we investigate the relationship between basic combinatorial operations in both reading and listening. Using magnetoencephalography, we measured neural activity elicited by the comprehension of simple adjective-noun phrases (red boat) using the same linguistic materials and tasks in both modalities. The present paradigm deviates from previous cross-modality studies by investigating only basic combinatorial mechanisms--specifically, those evoked by the construction of simple adjective-noun phrases. Our results indicate that both modalities rely upon shared neural mechanisms localized to the left anterior temporal lobe (lATL) and left angular gyrus (lAG) during such processing. Furthermore, we found that combinatorial mechanisms subserved by these regions are deployed in the same temporal order within each modality, with lATL activity preceding lAG activity. Modality-specific combinatorial effects were identified during initial perceptual processing, suggesting top-down modulation of low-level mechanisms even during basic composition.

title: Flexible Composition: MEG Evidence for the Deployment of Basic Combinatorial Linguistic Mechanisms in Response to Task Demands
abstract: The present study investigates whether a minimal manipulation in task demands can induce core linguistic combinatorial mechanisms to extend beyond the bounds of normal grammatical phrases. Using magnetoencephalography, we measured neural activity evoked by the processing of adjective-noun phrases in canonical (red cup) and reversed order (cup red). During a task not requiring composition (verification against a color blob and shape outline), we observed significant combinatorial activity during canonical phrases only – as indexed by minimum norm source activity localized to the left anterior temporal lobe at 200–250 ms(cf. , ). When combinatorial task demands were introduced (by simply combining the blob and outline into a single colored shape) we observed significant combinatorial activity during reversed sequences as well. These results demonstrate the first direct evidence that basic linguistic combinatorial mechanisms can be deployed outside of normal grammatical expressions in response to task demands, independent of changes in lexical or attentional factors.

title: MEG evidence for conceptual combination but not numeral quantification in the left anterior temporal lobe during language production
abstract: The left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) has risen as a leading candidate for a brain locus of composition in language; yet the computational details of its function are unknown. Although most literature discusses it as a combinatory region in very general terms, it has also been proposed to reflect the more specific function of conceptual combination, which in the classic use of this term mainly pertains to the combination of open class words with obvious conceptual contributions. We aimed to distinguish between these two possibilities by contrasting plural nouns in contexts where they were either preceded by a color modifier (“red cups”), eliciting conceptual combination, or by a number word (“two cups”), eliciting numeral quantification but no conceptual combination. This contrast was chosen because within a production task, it allows the manipulation of composition type while keeping the physical stimulus constant: a display of two red cups can be named as “two cups” or “red cups” depending on the task instruction. These utterances were compared to productions of two-word number and color lists, intended as non-combinatory control conditions. Magnetoencephalography activity was recorded during the planning for production, prior to motion artifacts. As expected on the basis of comprehension studies, color modification elicited increased LATL activity as compared to color lists, demonstrating that this basic combinatory effect is strongly crossmodal. However, numeral quantification did not elicit a parallel effect, suggesting that the function of the LATL is (i) semantic and not syntactic (given that both color modification and numeral quantification involve syntactic composition) and (ii) corresponds more closely to the classical psychological notion of conceptual combination as opposed to a more general semantic combinatory function.

title: The interplay of composition and concept specificity in the left anterior temporal lobe: An MEG study
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title: Evidence for conceptual combination in the left anterior temporal lobe
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title: Syntactic and Semantic Modulation of Neural Activity during Auditory Sentence Comprehension
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title: Response of anterior temporal cortex to syntactic and prosodic manipulations during sentence processing
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title: The Response of Left Temporal Cortex to Sentences
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title: Taking both sides: do unilateral anterior temporal lobe lesions disrupt semantic memory?
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title: Where do you know what you know? The representation of semantic knowledge in the human brain
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title: Structure and deterioration of semantic memory: a neuropsychological and computational investigation.
abstract: Wernicke (1900, as cited in G. H. Eggert, 1977) suggested that semantic knowledge arises from the interaction of perceptual representations of objects and words. The authors present a parallel distributed processing implementation of this theory, in which semantic representations emerge from mechanisms that acquire the mappings between visual representations of objects and their verbal descriptions. To test the theory, they trained the model to associate names, verbal descriptions, and visual representations of objects. When its inputs and outputs are constructed to capture aspects of structure apparent in attribute-norming experiments, the model provides an intuitive account of semantic task performance. The authors then used the model to understand the structure of impaired performance in patients with selective and progressive impairments of conceptual knowledge. Data from 4 well-known semantic tasks revealed consistent patterns that find a ready explanation in the model. The relationship between the model and related theories of semantic representation is discussed.

title: Anterior temporal cortex and semantic memory: Reconciling findings from neuropsychology and functional imaging
abstract: Studies of semantic impairment arising from brain disease suggest that the anterior temporal lobes are critical for semantic abilities in humans; yet activation of these regions is rarely reported in functional imaging studies of healthy controls performing semantic tasks. Here, we combined neuropsychological and PE T functional imaging data to show that when healthy subjects identify concepts at a specific level, the regions activated correspond to the site of maximal atrophy in patients with relatively pure semantic impairment. The stimuli were color photographs of common animals or vehicles, and the task was category verification at specific (e.g., robin), intermediate (e.g., bird), or general (e.g., animal) levels. Specific, relative to general, categorization activated the antero-lateral temporal cortices bilaterally, despite matching of these experimental conditions for difficulty. Critically, in patients with atrophy in precisely these areas, the most pronounced deficit was in the retrieval of specific semantic information.

title: The role of the left anterior temporal lobe in semantic composition vs. semantic memory
abstract: The left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) is robustly implicated in semantic processing by a growing body of literature. However, these results have emerged from two distinct bodies of work, addressing two different processing levels. On the one hand, the LATL has been characterized as a 'semantic hub׳ that binds features of concepts across a distributed network, based on results from semantic dementia and hemodynamic findings on the categorization of specific compared to basic exemplars. On the other, the LATL has been implicated in combinatorial operations in language, as shown by increased activity in this region associated with the processing of sentences and of basic phrases. The present work aimed to reconcile these two literatures by independently manipulating combination and concept specificity within a minimal MEG paradigm. Participants viewed simple nouns that denoted either low specificity (fish) or high specificity categories (trout) presented in either combinatorial (spotted fish/trout) or non-combinatorial contexts (xhsl fish/trout). By combining these paradigms from the two literatures, we directly compared the engagement of the LATL in semantic memory vs. semantic composition. Our results indicate that although noun specificity subtly modulates the LATL activity elicited by single nouns, it most robustly affects the size of the composition effect when these nouns are adjectivally modified, with low specificity nouns eliciting a much larger effect. We conclude that these findings are compatible with an account in which the specificity and composition effects arise from a shared mechanism of meaning specification.

title: Friends and Colleagues: Plurality, Coordination, and the Structure of DP
abstract: Starting from an analysis for the crosslinguistic variation in the grammaticality of DP-internal conjunctions such as This [man and woman] are in love, this article develops a theory of the syntax/semantics interface within the DP and a novel proposal for the interpretation of conjunction. The main claims are that plural/mass denotations are built in stages within the DP, by the combined effect of number features and semantic operators associated with functional heads; that languages differ in whether the denotation of nouns is filtered for singular or plural number; and that the word and crosslinguistically denotes Set Product, an operation which, in different contexts, can mimic the behavior of intersection and union.

title: Plural Predication and the Strongest Meaning Hypothesis
abstract: The Strongest Meaning Hypothesis of Dalrymple et al. (1994, 1998), which was originally proposed as a principle for the interpretation of reciprocals, is extended in this paper into a general principle of plural predication. This principle applies to complex predicates that are composed of lexical predicates that hold of atomic entities, and determines the pluralities in the extension of the predicate. The meaning of such a complex predicate is claimed to be the truth-conditionally strongest meaning that does not contradict lexical properties of the simple predicates it contains. Weak interpretations of reciprocals (as in the books are stacked on top of each other), plural predicate conjunction (e.g. the books are old and new) and 'atomic' distributivity in general are derived by a unified mechanism, which 'weakens' the basic universal meanings of strong reciprocals, boolean conjunction and quantification over atomic entities.

title: Boolean semantics for natural language
abstract: An Overview.- 1. Sketch of the Semantics.- 1.1. Characterizing English Denotations and Entailments.- 1.2. Characterizing Possible Semantic Systems for Natural Language.- 2. On the Relation between English Form and Logical Form.- 3. An Ontological Innovation.- I: The Extensional Logic.- A. The Core Language, L.- 1. Syntax of the Core Language L.- Defining CAT.- Defining V and PEV.- Defining L.- Remarks on the Definitions.- 2. The Semantics for L.- Defining the Types for L.- The Type for P0 or Formulas.- The Types for N, $$\bar N$$, and $$\bar N$$prop.- Eliminating the Universe.- Characterizing TN.- Completeness of boolean algebras.- Atomicity of boolean algebras.- Defining TN Without a Universe.- Defining Proper Noun Denotations without U.- The Ontology and Some Basic Types for L: Summary.- Discussion.- Why should TN Be Complete and Atomic?.- Defining TDet.- Defining the Types for the Pn's.- Defining $${T_{{P_n}}}$$, all n.- Defining Types for Predicative Hierarchies in General.-  Definition of the Types.- Defining Interpretations for L.- Advantages of the Generalized Entailment Relation.- A Concluding Remark on Comparative Ontologies.- Proofs of the Theorems.- Notes.- I: The Extensional Logic.- B. Extending the Core Language.- 1.  Adjective Phrases.- Comparative Adjectives.- Predicate Adjectives.- Proofs of Theorems from This Section.- 2. Predicate Modifiers.- Proofs of Theorems from This Section.- 3. Predicatives.- Preliminary Remarks on Case Marking.- Transitive Common Noun Phrases.- Modifiers of n-place Common Nouns.- Some Relations Between Nominals and Predicates.- Subcategories of Nn.- Transitive Adjective Phrases.- Ditransitive Verb Phrases (P3s).- Prepositions and Predicate Modifier Hierarchies.- Prepositions as Formers of Predicate Modifiers.- Prepositions as Verbal Extensors.- 4. Valency Affecting  Passives.- A Generalized Passive Operator.- Sentence level views.- Predicate level views.- Generalizing Passive.- Agent Phrases.- Extending Passive to Nominals and Other Predicative Hierarchies.-  Passive Adjectives?.- Passive Prepositions??.- 5. Extending and Subcategorizing the Class of Determiners.- Numerical Determiners.- Non-Logical Determiners.- Characterizing 'Logical'  The Lambda Operator.- The Reflexive Operator.- The Relative Clause Operator.- 7. Non-homomorphic Predicates?.- Numerical Predicates.- Collective Predicates.- Reciprocal Predicates.- Intensional Predicates.- II: The Intensional Logic.- 1. Introduction to the Intensional System.- Proofs of the Theorems.- 2. The Intensional System for the Core Language.- Proofs of the Theorems.- Notes for II.2.- 3. The Intensional Logic for APs.- Proofs of the Theorems.- 4. Predicate Modifiers and Prepositions in the Intensional System.- 5. Variables and Variable Binding Operators in the Intensional System.- 6. Sentential Predicates in the Intensional System.- Syntax of Sentence Taking Predicates.- A Semantics for $$\bar S$$ and $$\bar S$$-Taking Predicates.- Formal Definitions of the New Types.- Lexical Constraints on the Interpreting Function m.- Subcategories of $$\bar S$$-Taking Predicates.- Argument Categories in Addition to $$\bar N$$ and $$\bar S$$.- Extraposition.

title: Meaning, Use, and Interpretation of Language
abstract: Bibliothek München CIP-Kurztitelaufnahme der Deutschen Bibliothek Meaning, use and interpretation of language / ed. Cognitive impairments in aphasia : new results and new problems 30 Florian Coulmas Underdeterminacy and plausibility in word-formation 46 Maxwell J. Cresswell A highly impossible scene. The semantics of visual contradictions 62 Urs Egli The Stoic theory of arguments 79 Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen Wieder ein wieder? Zur Semantik von wieder 97 Jacques François On the perspectival ordering of patient and causing event in the distribution of French and German verbs of change: a contrastive study 121 Harold Goodglass Disorders of lexical production and comprehension 134 Christopher Habel Inferences-the base of semantics? 147 VIII Contents Irene Heim File change semantics and the familiarity theory of definiteness , 164 Jaap Hoepelman Adjectives and nouns: a new calculus 190 Hans Hörmann The calculating listener, or : How many are einige, mehrere, and ein paar (some, several, and a few) ? 221 Karlheinz Hülser The fragments on Stoic dialectic: a new collection 235 Hans Kamp and Christian Rohrer Tense in texts 250 Walther Kindt Neue modelltheoretische Ansätze für die Semantik. The logical analysis of plurals and mass terms : a lattice-theoretical approach 302

title: Between Intersective and 'Split' Interpretations of Predicate Conjunction: The Role of Typicality
abstract: This paper aims to account for the different interpretations of plural sentences with conjoined predicates. Such sentences are somc:times ~terpreted strictly intersectively, sometimes strictly non-mtersectively (or 'split'), and sometimes both ~terpreta~ons appear to be allowed We propose that the logical mtt:rJ>~tion of these sentences is systematically affected by typicality effects of the complex predicate in the sentence. We show with a set of experiments that a) the acceptability of a nonintersective interpretation can be expressed in terms of a continuum and b) each acceptability proportion is predicted by the typicality of the two conjoined predicates applying simultaneously. This way, we specify at least one of the relevant pragmatic considerations that determine the interpretation of a plural sentence with conjunctive predicates. Moreover, these results stress the importance of conceptual structure of predicates for compositional semantics.

title: Role of anterior temporal cortex in auditory sentence comprehension: an fMRI study
abstract: Recent neuropsychological and functional imaging evidence has suggested a role for anterior temporal cortex in sentence-level comprehension. We explored this hypothesis using event-related fMRI. Subjects were scanned while they listened to either a sequence of environmental sounds describing an event or a corresponding sentence matched as closely as possible in meaning. Both types of stimuli required subjects to integrate auditory information over time to derive a similar meaning, but differ in the processing mechanisms leading to the integration of that information, with speech input requiring syntactic mechanisms and environmental sounds utilizing non-linguistic mechanisms. Consistent with recent claims, sentences produced greater activation than environmental sounds in anterior superior temporal lobe bilaterally. A similar speech > sound activation pattern was noted also in posterior superior temporal regions in the left. Envirornmental sounds produced greater activation than sentences in right inferior frontal gyrus. The results provide support for the view that anterior temporal cortex plays an important role in sentence-level comprehension.

title: Reduction of non-periodic environmental magnetic noise in MEG measurement by continuously adjusted least squares method
abstract: We developed a signal processing method named CALM (Continuously Adjusted Least squares Method) to reduce the non-periodical low-frequency noise during magnetoencephalography (MEG) measurements. With this method, we have successfully measured motor related cortical fields (MRCF) under daytime heavy urban noise.

title: Composition of complex numbers: Delineating the computational role of the left anterior temporal lobe
abstract: What is the neurobiological basis of our ability to create complex messages with language? Results from multiple methodologies have converged on a set of brain regions as relevant for this general process, but the computational details of these areas remain to be characterized. The left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) has been a consistent node within this network, with results suggesting that although it rather systematically shows increased activation for semantically complex structured stimuli, this effect does not extend to number phrases such as 'three books.' In the present work we used magnetoencephalography to investigate whether numbers in general are an invalid input to the combinatory operations housed in the LATL or whether the lack of LATL engagement for stimuli such as 'three books' is due to the quantificational nature of such phrases. As a relevant test case, we employed complex number terms such as 'twenty-three', where one number term is not a quantifier of the other but rather, the two terms form a type of complex concept. In a number naming paradigm, participants viewed rows of numbers and depending on task instruction, named them as complex number terms ('twenty-three'), numerical quantifications ('two threes'), adjectival modifications ('blue threes') or non-combinatory lists (e.g., 'two, three'). While quantificational phrases failed to engage the LATL as compared to non-combinatory controls, both complex number terms and adjectival modifications elicited a reliable activity increase in the LATL. Our results show that while the LATL does not participate in the enumeration of tokens within a set, exemplified by the quantificational phrases, it does support conceptual combination, including the composition of complex number concepts.

title: Automated labeling of the human brain: A preliminary report on the development and evaluation of a forward‐transform method
abstract: A forward‐transform method for retrieving brain labels from the 1988 Talairach Atlas using x‐y‐z coordinates is presented. A hierarchical volume‐occupancy labeling scheme was created to simplify the organization of atlas labels using volume and subvolumetric components. Segmentation rules were developed to define boundaries that were not given explicitly in the atlas. The labeling scheme and segmentation rules guided the segmentation and labeling of 160 contiguous regions within the atlas. A unique three‐dimensional (3‐D) database label server called the Talairach Daemon (http://ric.uthscsa.edu/projects) was developed for serving labels keyed to the Talairach coordinate system. Given an x‐y‐z Talairach coordinate, a corresponding hierarchical listing of labels is returned by the server. The accuracy and precision of the forward‐transform labeling method is now under evaluation.  Brain Mapping 5:238–242, 1997.

title: Nonparametric statistical testing of EEG- and MEG-data
abstract: In this paper, we show how ElectroEncephaloGraphic (EEG) and MagnetoEncephaloGraphic (MEG) data can be analyzed statistically using nonparametric techniques. Nonparametric statistical tests offer complete freedom to the user with respect to the test statistic by means of which the experimental conditions are compared. This freedom provides a straightforward way to solve the multiple comparisons problem (MCP) and it allows to incorporate biophysically motivated constraints in the test statistic, which may drastically increase the sensitivity of the statistical test. The paper is written for two audiences: (1) empirical neuroscientists looking for the most appropriate data analysis method, and (2) methodologists interested in the theoretical concepts behind nonparametric statistical tests. For the empirical neuroscientist, a large part of the paper is written in a tutorial-like fashion, enabling neuroscientists to construct their own statistical test, maximizing the sensitivity to the expected effect. And for the methodologist, it is explained why the nonparametric test is formally correct. This means that we formulate a null hypothesis (identical probability distribution in the different experimental conditions) and show that the nonparametric test controls the false alarm rate under this null hypothesis.

title: Thresholding of Statistical Maps in Functional Neuroimaging Using the False Discovery Rate
abstract: Finding objective and effective thresholds for voxelwise statistics derived from neuroimaging data has been a long-standing problem. With at least one test performed for every voxel in an image, some correction of the thresholds is needed to control the error rates, but standard procedures for multiple hypothesis testing (e.g., Bonferroni) tend to not be sensitive enough to be useful in this context. This paper introduces to the neuroscience literature statistical procedures for controlling the false discovery rate (FDR). Recent theoretical work in statistics suggests that FDR-controlling procedures will be effective for the analysis of neuroimaging data. These procedures operate simultaneously on all voxelwise test statistics to determine which tests should be considered statistically significant. The innovation of the procedures is that they control the expected proportion of the rejected hypotheses that are falsely rejected. We demonstrate this approach using both simulations and functional magnetic resonance imaging data from two simple experiments.

title: The LATL as locus of composition: MEG evidence from English and Arabic
abstract: Neurolinguistic investigations into the processing of structured sentences as well as simple adjective-noun phrases point to the left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) as a leading candidate for basic linguistic composition. Here, we characterized the combinatory profile of the LATL over a variety of syntactic and semantic environments, and across two languages, English and Arabic. The contribution of the LATL was investigated across two types of composition: the optional modification of a predicate (modification) and the satisfaction of a predicate's argument position (argument saturation). Target words were presented during MEG recordings, either in combinatory contexts (e.g. "eats meat") or in non-combinatory contexts (preceded by an unpronounceable consonant string, e.g. "xqkr meat"). Across both languages, the LATL showed increased responses to words in combinatory contexts, an effect that was robust to composition type and word order. Together with related findings, these results solidify the role of the LATL in basic semantic composition.

title: Semantics in generative grammar
abstract: Preface. 1. Truth-conditional Semantics and the Fregean Program. 2. Executing the Fregean Program. 3. Semantics and Syntax. 4.  Relative Clauses, Variables, Variable Binding. 6.  Their Semantic Type. 7. Quantification and Grammar. 8. Syntactic and Semantic Constraints on Quantifier Movement. 9. Bound and Referential Pronouns and Ellipsis. 10. Syntactic and Semantic Binding. 11. E-Type Anaphora. 12. First Steps Towards an Intensional Semantics. Index.

title: A role for left temporal pole in the retrieval of words for unique entities
abstract: Both lesion and functional imaging studies have implicated sectors of high‐order association cortices of the left temporal lobe in the retrieval of words for objects belonging to varied conceptual categories. In particular, the cortices located in the left temporal pole have been associated with naming unique persons from faces. Because this neuroanatomical‐behavioral association might be related to either the specificity of the task (retrieving a name at unique level) or to the possible preferential processing of faces by anterior temporal cortices, we performed a PET imaging experiment to test the hypothesis that the effect is related to the specificity of the word retrieval task. Normal subjects were asked to name at unique level entities from two conceptual categories: famous landmarks and famous faces. In support of the hypothesis, naming entities in both categories was associated with increases in activity in the left temporal pole. No main effect of category (faces vs. landmarks/buildings) or interaction of task and category was found in the left temporal pole. Retrieving names for unique persons and for names for unique landmarks activate the same brain region. These findings are consistent with the notion that activity in the left temporal pole is linked to the level of specificity of word retrieval rather than the conceptual class to which the stimulus belongs.  Brain Mapping 13:199–212, 2001.

title: Different patterns of famous people recognition disorders in patients with right and left anterior temporal lesions: A systematic review
abstract: Selective disorders in recognition of familiar people have been described in patients with right and left anterior temporal lesions, but the exact nature of these cognitive impairments remains controversial. A clarification of this issue could have theoretical implications, because, according to Snowden et al. [Snowden, J. S., Thompson, J. C., & Neary, D. (2004). Knowledge of famous faces and names in semantic dementia. Brain, 127, 860-872], the pattern of impairment shown by patients with right and left anterior temporal atrophy is inconsistent with unitary, abstract, amodal models of semantic memory. This pattern could, on the contrary suggest a multimodal network, in which the right and left temporal lobes would mainly process and store visual and, respectively, verbal information. I tried to clarify this issue by systematically reviewing: (a) all published individual cases of patients showing a prevalent damage of the anterior parts of the right or left temporal lobes and a selective disorder of famous people recognition; (b) all group studies of patients with right or left temporal lobe epilepsy, which had investigated aspects of famous people recognition impairment. Results of these reviews consistently showed that different patterns of impaired recognition of familiar people can be observed in patients with right and left anterior temporal pathology. These patterns consist of a loss of familiarity feelings and of person specific information retrieval from face stimuli, when the right temporal lobe is damaged and of a prevalent impairment in finding their names when the anterior parts of the left temporal lobe are selectively damaged.

title: The function of the anterior temporal lobe: A review of the empirical evidence
abstract: Recent work on the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) has lead to substantively different theoretical branches, of its putative functions, that have in some part developed independently of one another. The ATL has dense connectivity with a number of sensory modalities. This has resulted in empirical evidence that supports different functionality dependent upon the variables under investigation. The main bodies of evidence have implicated the ATL as a domain-general semantic hub, whilst other evidence points to a domain-specific role in social or 'person-related' processing. A third body of evidence suggests that the ATLs underlie processing of unique entities. Primarily, research of the ATL has been based on lesion studies and from clinical populations such as semantic dementia or temporal lobe epilepsy patients. Although important, this neuropsychological evidence has a number of confounds, therefore techniques such as functional neuroimaging on healthy participants and the relatively novel use of non-invasive brain stimulation may be more useful to isolate specific variables that can discriminate between these different theories concerning 'normal' function. This review focuses on these latter types of studies and considers the empirical evidence for each perspective. The overall literature is integrated in an attempt to formulate a unifying theory and the functional sub-regions within the ATL are explored. It is concluded that a holistic integration of the theories is feasible in that the ATLs could process domain-general semantic knowledge but with a bias towards social information or stimuli that is personally relevant. Thus, it may be the importance of social/emotional information that gives it priority of processing in the ATL not an inherent property of the structure itself.

title: Creating Concepts from Converging Features in Human Cortex.
abstract: To make sense of the world around us, our brain must remember the overlapping features of millions of objects. Crucially, it must also represent each object's unique feature-convergence. Some theories propose that an integration area (or "convergence zone") binds together separate features. We report an investigation of our knowledge of objects' features and identity, and the link between them. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to record neural activity, as humans attempted to detect a cued fruit or vegetable in visual noise. Crucially, we analyzed brain activity before a fruit or vegetable was present, allowing us to interrogate top-down activity. We found that pattern-classification algorithms could be used to decode the detection target's identity in the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL), its shape in lateral occipital cortex, and its color in right V4. A novel decoding-dependency analysis revealed that identity information in left ATL was specifically predicted by the temporal convergence of shape and color codes in early visual regions. People with stronger feature-and-identity dependencies had more similar top-down and bottom-up activity patterns. These results fulfill three key requirements for a neural convergence zone: a convergence result (object identity), ingredients (color and shape), and the link between them.

title: Building phrases in language production: An MEG study of simple composition
abstract: Although research on language production has developed detailed maps of the brain basis of single word production in both time and space, little is known about the spatiotemporal dynamics of the processes that combine individual words into larger representations during production. Studying composition in production is challenging due to difficulties both in controlling produced utterances and in measuring the associated brain responses. Here, we circumvent both problems using a minimal composition paradigm combined with the high temporal resolution of magnetoencephalography (MEG). With MEG, we measured the planning stages of simple adjective-noun phrases ('red tree'), matched list controls ('red, blue'), and individual nouns ('tree') and adjectives ('red'), with results indicating combinatorial processing in the ventro-medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and left anterior temporal lobe (LATL), two regions previously implicated for the comprehension of similar phrases. These effects began relatively quickly (∼180 ms) after the presentation of a production prompt, suggesting that combination commences with initial lexical access. Further, while in comprehension, vmPFC effects have followed LATL effects, in this production paradigm vmPFC effects occurred mostly in parallel with LATL effects, suggesting that a late process in comprehension is an early process in production. Thus, our results provide a novel neural bridge between psycholinguistic models of comprehension and production that posit functionally similar combinatorial mechanisms operating in reversed order.

title: The extended language network: A meta‐analysis of neuroimaging studies on text comprehension
abstract: Language processing in context requires more than merely comprehending words and sentences. Important subprocesses are inferences for bridging successive utterances, the use of background knowledge and discourse context, and pragmatic interpretations. The functional neuroanatomy of these text comprehension processes has only recently been investigated. Although there is evidence for right‐hemisphere contributions, reviews have implicated the left lateral prefrontal cortex, left temporal regions beyond Wernicke's area, and the left dorso‐medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) for text comprehension. To objectively confirm this extended language network and to evaluate the respective contribution of right hemisphere regions, meta‐analyses of 23 neuroimaging studies are reported here. The analyses used replicator dynamics based on activation likelihood estimates. Independent of the baseline, the anterior temporal lobes (aTL) were active bilaterally. In addition, processing of coherent compared with incoherent text engaged the dmPFC and the posterior cingulate cortex. Right hemisphere activations were seen most notably in the analysis of contrasts testing specific subprocesses, such as metaphor comprehension. These results suggest task dependent contributions for the lateral PFC and the right hemisphere. Most importantly, they confirm the role of the aTL and the fronto‐medial cortex for language processing in context.

title: Conceptual knowledge is underpinned by the temporal pole bilaterally: convergent evidence from rTMS.
abstract: Conceptual knowledge provides the basis on which we bring meaning to our world. Studies of semantic dementia patients and some functional neuroimaging studies indicate that the anterior temporal lobes, bilaterally, are the core neural substrate for the formation of semantic representations. This hypothesis remains controversial, however, as traditional neurological models of comprehension do not posit a role for these regions. To adjudicate on this debate, we conducted 2 novel experiments that used off-line, low-frequency, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to disrupt neural processing temporarily in the left or right temporal poles (TPs). The time required to make semantic decisions was slowed considerably, yet specifically, by this procedure. The results confirm that both TPs form a critical substrate within the neural network that supports conceptual knowledge.

title: Semantic Processing in the Anterior Temporal Lobes: A Meta-analysis of the Functional Neuroimaging Literature
abstract: The role of the anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) in semantic cognition is not clear from the current literature. Semantic dementia patients show a progressive and a specific semantic impairment, following bilateral atrophy of the ATLs. Neuroimaging studies of healthy participants, however, do not consistently show ATL activation during semantic tasks. Consequently, several influential theories of semantic memory do not ascribe a central role to the ATLs. We conducted a meta-analysis of 164 functional neuroimaging studies of semantic processing to investigate factors that might contribute to the inconsistency in previous results. Four factors influenced the likelihood of finding ATL activation: (1) the use of PET versus fMRI, reflecting the fact that fMRI but not PET is sensitive to distortion artifacts caused by large variations in magnetic susceptibility in the area of the ATL; (2) a field of view (FOV) of more than 15 cm, thereby ensuring whole-brain coverage; (3) the use of a high baseline task to prevent subtraction of otherwise uncontrolled semantic activation; (4) the inclusion of the ATL as an ROI. The type of stimuli or task did not influence the likelihood of ATL activation, consistent with the view that this region underpins an amodal semantic system. Spoken words, written words, and picture stimuli produced overlapping ATL peaks. On average, these were more inferior for picture-based tasks. We suggest that the specific pattern of ATL activation may be influenced by stimulus type due to variations across this region in the degree of connectivity with modality-specific areas in posterior temporal cortex.

title: Semantic integration in reading: engagement of the right hemisphere during discourse processing.
abstract: We examined the brain areas involved in discourse processing by using functional MRI in 10 individuals as they read paragraphs, with or without a title, word by word for comprehension. Functional data were collected from 20 adjacent 5 mm axial slices. Discourse processing was associated with activation in inferior frontal and temporal regions of both cerebral hemispheres in the titled and untitled conditions. Moreover, there was substantially more right hemisphere activation for untitled than for the titled paragraphs. More specifically we found: (i) greater activation in the inferior temporal sulcus of both hemispheres for untitled than titled paragraphs; (ii) greater average volume of activation in response to untitled than titled paragraphs in the middle temporal sulcus of the right hemisphere and the reverse pattern in the left middle temporal sulcus. Consistent with previous studies of individuals with right hemisphere damage, we suggest that the right middle temporal regions may be especially important for integrative processes needed to achieve global coherence during discourse processing.

title: Right-hemispheric damage and verbal problem solving behavior
abstract: Patients with right-hemisphere damage, who ostensibly have no linguistic impairment, are relatively incapable of solving two-term series problems in which comparative adjectives in the premise and question are antonymic. This finding suggests that such verbal reasoning depends, in part, upon nonlinguistic imaginal processes subserved by the right hemisphere. In this manner, the right hemisphere is often required for the full elaboration of linguistic input.

title: The appreciation of antonymic contrasts in aphasia
abstract: To secure information on the ability of aphasic patients to comprehend antonymic relations, the kinds of confusions typically made, and the extent to which antonymic sensitivity depends upon mode of presentation and task demands, three linguistic and nonlinguistic tests were administered to aphasic patients, right hemisphere-damaged patients, and non-neurological controls. Although difficulty with antonymous relations was found among all the organic patients, the kinds of problems evidenced and the relative profile of difficulties differed across populations. Among the principal findings were the generally preserved sensitivity to antonymy found among anterior (particularly Broca's) aphasics; a surprising insensitivity to antonymy and a preference for synonyms, found among right hemisphere patients, particularly on the nonlinguistic tasks; a relative preservation of sensitivity to antonymy on nonlinguistic tasks, coupled with a loss of such sensitivity on linguistic tasks, found among posterior (particularly Wernicke's) aphasics; a proclivity toward stereotypical correct responses among the organic patients; and an absolutely worse performance by right hemisphere patients on tasks involving antonymic relations in pictures and abstract designs.