{"title":"Conversational content is organized across multiple timescales in the brain","authors":"Masahiro Yamashita, Rieko Kubo, Shinji Nishimoto","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02231-4","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>The evolution of conversation facilitates the exchange of intricate thoughts and emotions. The meaning is progressively constructed by integrating both produced and perceived speech into hierarchical linguistic structures across multiple timescales, including words, sentences and discourse. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these interactive sense-making processes remain largely unknown. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity during hours of spontaneous conversations, modelling neural representations of conversational content using contextual embeddings derived from a large language model (GPT) at varying timescales. Our results reveal that linguistic representations are both shared and distinct between production and comprehension, distributed across various functional networks. Shared representations, predominantly localized within language-selective regions, were consistently observed at shorter timescales, corresponding to words and single sentences. By contrast, modality-specific representations exhibited opposing timescale selectivity: shorter for production and longer for comprehension, suggesting that distinct mechanisms are involved in contextual integration. These findings suggest that conversational meaning emerges from the interplay between shared linguistic codes and modality-specific temporal integration, facilitating context-dependent comprehension and adaptive speech production.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"99 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":21.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Nature Human Behaviour","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02231-4","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The evolution of conversation facilitates the exchange of intricate thoughts and emotions. The meaning is progressively constructed by integrating both produced and perceived speech into hierarchical linguistic structures across multiple timescales, including words, sentences and discourse. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these interactive sense-making processes remain largely unknown. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity during hours of spontaneous conversations, modelling neural representations of conversational content using contextual embeddings derived from a large language model (GPT) at varying timescales. Our results reveal that linguistic representations are both shared and distinct between production and comprehension, distributed across various functional networks. Shared representations, predominantly localized within language-selective regions, were consistently observed at shorter timescales, corresponding to words and single sentences. By contrast, modality-specific representations exhibited opposing timescale selectivity: shorter for production and longer for comprehension, suggesting that distinct mechanisms are involved in contextual integration. These findings suggest that conversational meaning emerges from the interplay between shared linguistic codes and modality-specific temporal integration, facilitating context-dependent comprehension and adaptive speech production.
期刊介绍:
Nature Human Behaviour is a journal that focuses on publishing research of outstanding significance into any aspect of human behavior.The research can cover various areas such as psychological, biological, and social bases of human behavior.It also includes the study of origins, development, and disorders related to human behavior.The primary aim of the journal is to increase the visibility of research in the field and enhance its societal reach and impact.