Information gain modulates brain activity evoked by reading.

ABSTRACT: The human brain processes language to optimise efficient communication. Studies have shown extensive evidence that the brain's response to language is affected both by lower-level features, such as word-length and frequency, and syntactic and semantic violations within sentences. However, our understanding on cognitive processes at discourse level remains limited: How does the relationship between words and the wider topic one is reading about affect language processing? We propose an information theoretic model to explain cognitive resourcing. In a study in which participants read sentences from Wikipedia entries, we show information gain, an information theoretic measure that quantifies the specificity of a word given its topic context, modulates word-synchronised brain activity in the E

SUBMITTER: Kangassalo L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7203262 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature