认知神经科学横幅 - 大脑左右脑功能语言处理

语言交流与社会互动课题组

探索大脑左右半球语言处理机制，揭示认知神经科学的奥秘

Neuroscience Research Lab / Lulab

最新进展

探索认知神经科学的前沿研究，了解我们在大脑语言处理机制方面的最新发现

Predicting the Auditory Language Ability of Young Children With Hearing Loss Using Their Mothers' Brain Activity

Predicting the Auditory Language Ability of Young Children With Hearing Loss Using Their Mothers' Brain Activity

Yu Zhai, Yajing Xing, Jianlong Zhao, XiangYu He, Kexin Jiang, Tengfei Zhang, and Chunming Lu

Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
2025

摘要

Children with congenital hearing loss (HL) have auditory impairments that may place them at increased risk for delays or variability in language development. However, obtaining reliable brain markers for early classification of young children with HL versus those with normal hearing (NH), as well as for precise assessment of HL children's language ability, remains a challenge due to limitations in traditional neuroimaging techniques and theoretical frameworks. To address this gap, we propose the maternal mirror hypothesis, which suggests that brain activities of mothers might mirror or indirectly reflect children's auditory language ability, offering an additional and useful approach for obtaining brain markers of HL children in clinical assessment.

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Non-invasive dual-brain stimulation facilitates social cooperation through enhancing interpersonal neural synchronization

Non-invasive dual-brain stimulation facilitates social cooperation through enhancing interpersonal neural synchronization

L Zheng, C Lu

NeuroImage, 121326
2025

摘要

Reciprocal altruism-based cooperation is ubiquitous among humans and plays a crucial role in the survival and evolutionary trajectories of human beings. Prior research has been capable of comprehending social cooperation by examining the patterns of interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) during real bidirectional social interactions, rather than focusing on single-brain responses to external stimuli. However, the causal influence of INS on cooperative strategic behaviors remains unclear. To address this gap, we directly modulated the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ)’s INS between individuals in 81 dyads during a Prisoner's Dilemma task using the transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) technique. The results indicated that active dual-brain tDCS on both individuals’ rTPJ during the task significantly enhanced INS, whereas sham dual-brain, control-region dual-brain, or single-brain stimulation had no such effect. This effect was further validated through an on-off mode of stimulation manipulation. Moreover, compared to sham dual-brain tDCS, the active dual-brain tDCS significantly increased the rate of cooperative strategic behaviors as well as the dyadic economic gains. Mediation analysis revealed that strategic behaviors mediated the relationship between INS enhancement and economic gains. These findings provide direct evidence for the crucial role of INS in social cooperation and offer a novel approach to promoting social cooperation.

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A rapid cortical learning process supporting students' Knowledge construction during real classroom teaching

A rapid cortical learning process supporting students' Knowledge construction during real classroom teaching

X Feng, X Xu, Z Meng, J Jiang, M Pei, Y Zheng, C Lu

Advanced Science 12 (18), 2416610
2025

摘要

Classroom teaching is essential for cognitive development and cultural evolution, yet its neurocognitive mechanisms remain unclear. Here, this is explored in a university graduate course by combining wearable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and machine learning models. The results show that blended teaching involving both students’ recalling and teachers’ lecturing leads to better learning outcomes than lecturing alone. Moreover, during the same lecturing phase, blended teaching induces knowledge construction in the middle frontal cortex (MFC), while lecturing alone induces knowledge representation in the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ), with the former significantly correlating with the final learning outcomes. Additionally, the MFC's construction begins during earlier recalling but is significantly facilitated by later lecturing. Finally, when teacher's TPJ activity precedes that of students’ MFC, significant teacher–student neural synchronization is observed during lecturing of blended teaching and is correlated with learning outcomes. These findings suggest that, in the real classroom teaching, the MFC serves as a hub of a rapid cortical learning process, supporting knowledge construction through a projection from the teacher's TPJ.

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The neurocomputational mechanisms of hierarchical linguistic predictions during narrative comprehension

The neurocomputational mechanisms of hierarchical linguistic predictions during narrative comprehension

F Zhou, S Zhou, Y Long, A Flinker, C Lu

bioRxiv, 2025.03. 27.645665
2025

摘要

Language comprehension requires a listener to predict the upcoming inputs of linguistic units with multiple timescales based on previous contexts, but how the prediction process is hierarchically represented and implemented in the human brain remains unclear. Combining the natural language processing (NLP) approach and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) in a narrative comprehension task, we first applied the group-based general linear model (gGLM) to identify the neural underpinnings associated with the language prediction on word and sentence. Our results revealed a cortical architecture supporting the prediction, extending from the superior temporal cortices to the regions in the default mode network. Then, we investigated how these adjacent levels interact with each other by testing two rival hypotheses: the continuous updating hypothesis posits that the higher level of the representational hierarchy is continuously updated as inputs unfold over time, while the sparse updating hypothesis states that the higher level is only updated at the end of their preferred timescales of linguistic units. By conducting computational modeling and autocorrelation analysis, we found the sparse model outperformed the continuous model and the updating might occur at the sentence boundaries. Together, our results extend the linguistic prediction from the small timescales such as words to large timescales such as sentences, providing novel insights into the neurocomputational mechanisms of information updating within the linguistic prediction hierarchy.

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A Shift in Brain Functional Systems During Mother-Child Neural Synchrony Marks Children's Cognitive Development

A Shift in Brain Functional Systems During Mother-Child Neural Synchrony Marks Children's Cognitive Development

H Zhao, Y Zhai, X He, Z Wang, C Lu

Available at SSRN 5168717
2025

摘要

Mother-child social interaction plays a crucial role in shaping children’s cognitive development over the preschool years, with a particular emphasis on their self-regulation ability. However, the precise elements and brain patterns within mother-child interaction that significantly contribute to the development of children’s self-regulation ability remain elusive. To address these issues, this study integrated free-play tasks with the fNIRS hyperscanning technique. The sample included adult-child dyads, in which the child was either 3 or 7 years old. Results showed that at the brain level, interpersonal neural synchronization between the TPJ of children and IFC of mothers was significantly associated with the committed compliance of 3-year-old children. Conversely, in the 7-year-old group, a significant correlation was observed in the INS between the TPJ of mothers and that of children. Further analysis indicated that, at the age of 3, mutual responsiveness contributed more to children’s self-regulation ability, and this effect was mediated by the TPJ-IFC’s INS. In contrast, at the age of 7, children’s responsiveness had a greater impact, which was mediated by the TPJ-TPJ’s INS. Collectively, these results suggested a shift in brain functional systems supporting different aspects of mother-child interactions throughout the preschool period, thereby significantly contributing to children’s self-regulation development.

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The cortical architecture representing the linguistic hierarchy of the conversational speech

The cortical architecture representing the linguistic hierarchy of the conversational speech

R Aili, S Zhou, X Xu, X He, C Lu

Neuroimage 311, 121180
2025

摘要

Recent studies demonstrate that the brain parses natural language into smaller units represented in lower-order regions and larger units in higher-order regions. Most of these studies, however, have been conducted on unidirectional narrative speech, leaving the linguistic hierarchy and its cortical representation in bidirectional conversational speech unexplored. To address this gap, we simultaneously measured brain activity from two individuals using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning while they engaged in a naturalistic conversation. Using a Pre-trained Language Model (PLM) and Representational Similarity Analysis (RSA), we demonstrated that conversational speech, jointly produced by two interlocutors in a turn-taking manner, exhibits a linguistic hierarchy, characterized by a boundary effect between linguistic units and an incremental context effect. Furthermore, a gradient pattern of shared cortical representation of the linguistic hierarchy was identified at the dyadic rather than the individual level. Interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) in the left superior temporal cortex was associated with turn representation, whereas INS in the medial prefrontal cortex was linked to topic representation. These findings further validated the distinctiveness of linguistic units of different sizes. Together, our results provide original evidence for the linguistic hierarchy and the underlying cortical architecture during a naturalistic conversation, extending the hierarchical nature of natural language from unidirectional narrative speech to bidirectional conversational speech.

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