RESEARCHERS TRACK INDIVIDUAL NEURONS AS THEY RESPOND TO WORDS

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

A recent study into the mechanism of human language comprehension aimed to figure out if there was any structure to the neuronal response to language. It involved playing recorded sets of words to patients who had implants that monitored the activity of neurons located in their left prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain largely responsible for processing language. The study found that the neurons' responses changed based on context - neurons in certain areas would light up if the patient heard specific words. Words presented with context elicited a stronger response compared to when the context was not available.