We used computational models built using neural networks to predict what brain areas process the new meaning that emerges when words are combined. The brain activity evoked by this composed meaning ...

Think about a word that looks like its meaning. For instance, the word bed kind of looks like a bed, with the vertical lines resembling the posts at either end. Loop looks very loopy. Some words are ...

Using a novel technology for obtaining recordings from single neurons, a team of investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham health care system, ...

Expanding your vocabulary is great for your brain.

Every word represents a decision about how certain letters combine to refer to an activity, object, subject, or feeling. As people keep inventing new things, more words and phrases are created to ...

An attribute of human language is the seemingly arbitrary association between a word’s form and meaning. We provide evidence that the meaning of foreign words can be partially deduced from ...

Children learn language effortlessly and completely voluntarily. They learn new words miraculously fast. A teenager masters about 60,000 words of their mother tongue by the time they finish high ...

Humans read by 'pre-processing' written words to create a pipeline of meaning, according to new research. Humans read by 'pre-processing' written words to create a pipeline of meaning, according to ...