Cerebral coherence between communicators marks the emergence of meaning

Arjen Stolk, Matthijs L. Noordzij, Lennart Verhagen, Inge Volman, Jan-Mathijs Schoffelen, Robert Oostenveld, Peter Hagoort, Ivan Toni

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

74 Citations (Scopus)
131 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

How can we understand each other during communicative interactions? An influential suggestion holds that communicators are primed by each other’s behaviors, with associative mechanisms automatically coordinating the production of communicative signals and the comprehension of their meanings. An alternative suggestion posits that mutual understanding requires shared conceptualizations of a signal’s use, i.e., “conceptual pacts” that are abstracted away from specific experiences. Both accounts predict coherent neural dynamics across communicators, aligned either to the occurrence of a signal or to the dynamics of conceptual pacts. Using coherence spectral-density analysis of cerebral activity simultaneously measured in pairs of communicators, this study shows that establishing mutual understanding of novel signals synchronizes cerebral dynamics across communicators’ right temporal lobes. This interpersonal cerebral coherence occurred only within pairs with a shared communicative history, and at temporal scales independent from signals’ occurrences. These findings favor the notion that meaning emerges from shared conceptualizations of a signal’s use.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)18183-18188
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume111
Issue number51
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Oct 2014

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Cerebral coherence between communicators marks the emergence of meaning'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this