Spatiotemporal dynamics of lexical and morphosyntactic planning during language production revealed by magnetoencephalography
- 1University of Maryland, College Park
Abstract
Fluent sentence production relies on the precise and timely coordination of lexical retrieval, morphosyntactic planning, and motor execution. While a left-dominant fronto-parieto-temporal network has been identified for these subcomponents of sentence production, less is known about the time course of engagement of these regions. One key issue is the extent to which the engagement of neural regions is sequential. The aim of the present study was to delineate spatiotemporal patterns of subcomponents of sentence production, namely lexical retrieval, inflection, and constituent assembly, and identify any lexical category differences (nouns versus verbs) in these processes. Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) responses were measured using a novel picture-icon paradigm in which verbal responses were elicited using object or action pictures followed by an icon that indicated the subcomponent sentence processes: lexical access, inflection (plurals for nouns, tense for verbs), and constituent assembly (adjective + object or pronoun + action). MEG data from twenty native English-speaking right-handed neurotypical adults was analysed for both stimulus-locked and response-locked timelines. We focused on responses in left hemisphere speech-language regions of interest (ROI): precentral gyrus (M1), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), anterior temporal lobe (ATL), posterior temporal lobe (PTL), and inferior parietal lobe (IPL). The results revealed the following: 1) early and largely simultaneous engagement of all ROIs for lexical access; 2) compared to noun lexical access, verb lexical access is associated with a larger neural response across multiple language ROIs; 3) morphosyntactic planning engaged all ROIs, showing commonalities as well as unique patterns for each morphosyntactic condition; 4) noun morphosyntax vs noun lexical access showed a larger response across multiple ROIs compared to verb morphosyntax vs verb lexical access; 5) M1 was coactivated with other ROIs early in the planning stage, suggesting simultaneity of language and motor planning. The findings support a network model of language in which the syntactic, semantic, and phonological properties of a word are bound to a single anatomically distributed representation.
Related
- Cortico-hippocampal dynamics of hierarchical syntactic planning in natural speech production
- Urban greening resources and visibility–soil-moisture coordination in Dubai: Spatiotemporal patterns, spatially varying drivers, and planning implications
- Neural oscillations and network specialisation in early childhood captured with next-generation magnetoencephalography
- Analysis of the spatiotemporal evolution of agricultural production efficiency and its determinants in China
- Stochastic dynamic programming for condition-based maintenance and production considering predetermined demand and maintenance delay in a finite planning horizon
BibTeX
@misc{wei2026spatiotemporal,
title = {{Spatiotemporal dynamics of lexical and morphosyntactic planning during language production revealed by magnetoencephalography}},
author = {Y. Wei and L. R. Slevc and C. Brodbeck and Y. Faroqi-Shah},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.17.752155},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.17.752155v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Spatiotemporal dynamics of lexical and morphosyntactic planning during language production revealed by magnetoencephalography
AU - Y. Wei
AU - L. R. Slevc
AU - C. Brodbeck
AU - Y. Faroqi-Shah
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.17.752155
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.17.752155v1
AB - Fluent sentence production relies on the precise and timely coordination of lexical retrieval, morphosyntactic planning, and motor execution. While a left-dominant fronto-parieto-temporal network has been identified for these subcomponents of sentence production, less is known about the time course of engagement of these regions. One key issue is the extent to which the engagement of neural regions is sequential. The aim of the present study was to delineate spatiotemporal patterns of subcomponents of sentence production, namely lexical retrieval, inflection, and constituent assembly, and identify any lexical category differences (nouns versus verbs) in these processes. Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) responses were measured using a novel picture-icon paradigm in which verbal responses were elicited using object or action pictures followed by an icon that indicated the subcomponent sentence processes: lexical access, inflection (plurals for nouns, tense for verbs), and constituent assembly (adjective + object or pronoun + action). MEG data from twenty native English-speaking right-handed neurotypical adults was analysed for both stimulus-locked and response-locked timelines. We focused on responses in left hemisphere speech-language regions of interest (ROI): precentral gyrus (M1), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), anterior temporal lobe (ATL), posterior temporal lobe (PTL), and inferior parietal lobe (IPL). The results revealed the following: 1) early and largely simultaneous engagement of all ROIs for lexical access; 2) compared to noun lexical access, verb lexical access is associated with a larger neural response across multiple language ROIs; 3) morphosyntactic planning engaged all ROIs, showing commonalities as well as unique patterns for each morphosyntactic condition; 4) noun morphosyntax vs noun lexical access showed a larger response across multiple ROIs compared to verb morphosyntax vs verb lexical access; 5) M1 was coactivated with other ROIs early in the planning stage, suggesting simultaneity of language and motor planning. The findings support a network model of language in which the syntactic, semantic, and phonological properties of a word are bound to a single anatomically distributed representation.
ER -