Publications

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(* = equal contribution)

        Submitted

• • Messi, A. & Pylkkänen, L. (submitted). Tracking neural correlates of contextualized meanings with representational similarity analysis.
  • Krogh, S. & Pylkkänen, L. (submitted). Manipulating syntax without taxing working memory: MEG correlates of syntactic dependencies in a Verb-Second language. Preprint. 
  • Parrish, A., Rodriguez, A., & Pylkkänen L. (submitted). Non-Local Conceptual Combination. Preprint.
  • Lai, M., Abrams, E., Bou Dargham, S., Fallon, J., Goldman, E., Hauptman, M., Parrish, A., Phillips, S. F., Reinoso, A., & Pylkkänen, L. (submitted). Developmental changes in auditory evoked responses at different levels of linguistic processing: an MEG study.
  • Chacón, D. A. & Pylkkänen L. (submitted). Disentangling semantic prediction and association in processing filler-gap dependencies: An MEG study in English. Preprint.

• 2024/in press

  • Fallon J. & Pylkkänen, L. (2024). Language at a glance: How our brains grasp linguistic structure from parallel visual input. Science Advances, 10(43), eadr9951. https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.adr9951
  • Flower, N. & Pylkkänen, L. (2024). The spatiotemporal dynamics of bottom-up and top-down processing during at-a-glance reading. Journal of Neuroscience, e0374242024, https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0374-24.2024
  • Wang, S., Kim, S., Binder, J. R., & Pylkkänen, L. (2025). Unlocking the complexity of phrasal composition: An interplay between semantic features and linguistic relations. Cognition, 254, 105986.
  • Dirani, J., & Pylkkänen, L. (2024). MEG evidence that modality-independent conceptual representations contain semantic and visual features. Journal of Neuroscience , 44 (27). https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0326-24.2024
  • Reilly, J., Shain, C., Borghesani, V., Kuhnke, P., Vigliocco, G., Peelle, J. E., .. Pylkkanen, L.,… & Vinson, D. (2024). What we mean when we say semantic: Toward a multidisciplinary semantic glossary. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1-38. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-024-02556-7
  • Rodriguez, A., Wang, S., & Pylkkänen, L. (2024). Do Neural Language Models Inferentially Compose Concepts the Way Humans Can?. In Proceedings of the 2024 Joint International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC-COLING 2024) (pp. 5309-5314). https://aclanthology.org/2024.lrec-main.472.pdf
  • Li, J., Lai, M. & Pylkkänen L. (2024). Semantic composition in experimental and naturalistic paradigms. Imaging Neuroscience, 2, 1–17. doi.org/10.1162/imag_a_00072
  • Jixing Li, Qixuan Wang, Qian, Zhou, Lu Yang, Yutong Shen, Shujian Huang, Shaonan Wang, Liina Pylkkänen, Zhiwu Huang. Multitalker speech comprehension at different temporal scales in listeners with normal and impaired hearing. (2024). eLife. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.100056.1
  • Orpella, J., Flick, G., Assaneo, M. F., Pylkkanen, L, Poeppel, D, Jackson, E., (2024). Reactive Inhibitory Control Precedes Overt Stuttering Events. Neurobiology of Language, 1–49. https://doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00138 

• 2023

  • Goldman, E., Bou Dargham, S.,  Lai, M., Fallon, J., Hauptman, M., Reinoso, Phillips, S. F., A., Abrams, E., Parrish, A., Guda, A. & Pylkkänen, L. (2023). MEG correlates of speech planning in simple vs. interactive picture naming in children and adults. PLOS ONE 18(10): e0292316.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0292316 
  • Gwilliams, L., Flick, G., Marantz, A., Pylkkanen, L., Poeppel, D., & King, J–R. (2023) Introducing MEG-MASC a high-quality magneto-encephalography dataset for evaluating natural speech processing. Scientific Data, 10(1), 862. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-023-02752-5
  • Dirani, J., & Pylkkänen, L. (2023). The Time Course of Cross-Modal Representations of Conceptual Categories. NeuroImage, 120254. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120254
    

  2022

  • Hauptman, M.*, Blanco-Elorrieta*, E., & Pylkkänen, L. (2022). Inflection across categories: Tracking abstract morphological processing in language production with MEG. Cerebral Cortex, 32(8). doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhab309
  • Parrish, A., & Pylkkänen, L. (2022). Conceptual combination in the LATL with and without syntactic composition. Neurobiology of Language, 3(1), 46-66. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00048

  2021

  • Phillips, S. F., & Pylkkänen, L. (2021). Composition within and between Languages in the Bilingual Mind: MEG Evidence from Korean/English Bilinguals. Eneuro, 8(6). doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0084-21.2021

  • Flick, G., Abdullah, O., & Pylkkänen, L. (2021). From letters to composed concepts: A magnetoencephalography study of reading. Human brain mapping, 42(15), 5130-5153. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.07.414656 

  • Li, J., & Pylkkänen, L. (2021). Disentangling semantic composition and semantic association in the left temporal lobe. Journal of Neuroscience, 41(30), 6526-6538. doi:  https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.17.254482

  • Kim, S., & Pylkkänen, L. (2021). How the conceptual specificity of individual words affects incremental sentence composition: MEG evidence. Brain and Language, 218, 104951. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2021.104951 

  • Matar, S., Dirani, J., Marantz, A., & Pylkkänen, L. (2021). Left posterior temporal cortex is sensitive to syntax within conceptually matched Arabic expressions. Scientific reports, 11(1), 1-14. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86474-x

  • Honari-Jahromi, M., Chouinard, B., Blanco-Elorrieta, E., Pylkkänen, L., & Fyshe, A. (2021). Neural representation of words within phrases: Temporal evolution of color-adjectives and object-nouns during simple composition. PloS one, 16(3), e0242754. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242754

  • Law, R., & Pylkkänen, L. (2021). Lists with and without syntax: A new approach to measuring the neural processing of syntax. Journal of Neuroscience, 41(10), 2186-2196. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1179-20.2021

  • Tulling, M., Law, R., Cournane, A., & Pylkkänen, L. (2021). Neural correlates of modal displacement and discourse-updating under (un) certainty. Eneuro, 8(1). doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0290-20.2020

  • Blanco-Elorrieta, E., Gwilliams, L., Marantz, A., & Pylkkänen, L. (2021). Adaptation to mis-pronounced speech: evidence for a prefrontal-cortex repair mechanism. Scientific reports, 11(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79640-0

  2020

  • Li, J., Wang, S., Luh, W. M., Pylkkänen, L., Yang, Y., & Hale, J. T. (2020). Modeling pronoun resolution in the brain. bioRxiv, 2020-11. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.24.396598

  • Dirani, J., & Pylkkänen, L. (2020). Lexical Access in Naming and Reading: Spatiotemporal Localization of Semantic Facilitation and Interference Using MEG. Neurobiology of Language, 1(2), 185-207. https://doi.org/10.1101/449157. 

  • Blanco-Elorrieta, E., Ding, N., Pylkkänen, L., & Poeppel, D. (2020). Understanding requires tracking: noise and knowledge interact in bilingual comprehension. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 32(10), 1975-1983. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01610

  • Pylkkänen, L. (2020). Neural basis of basic composition: what we have learned from the red–boat studies and their extensions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 375 (1791), 20190299. doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0299

  • Flick, G., & Pylkkänen, L. (2020). Isolating syntax in natural language: MEG evidence for an early contribution of left posterior temporal cortex. Cortex, 127, 42-57. doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2020.01.025

  2019

  • Pylkkänen, L. (2019). The neural basis of combinatory syntax and semantics. Science, 366(6461), 62-66. Link to abstract. All access link to full text.

  • Hsu, C. H., Pylkkänen, L., & Lee, C. Y. (2019). Effects of morphological complexity in left temporal cortex: An MEG study of reading Chinese disyllabic words. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 49, 168-177. doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2018.06.004 

  • Kim, S., & Pylkkänen, L. (2019). Composition of event concepts: Evidence for distinct roles for the left and right anterior temporal lobes. Brain and Language, 188, 18-27. doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2018.11.003 

  • Matar, S., Pylkkänen, L., & Marantz, A. (2019). Left occipital and right frontal involvement in syntactic category prediction: MEG evidence from Standard Arabic. Neuropsychologia, 135, 107230. doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107230

  • Kim, S., & Pylkkänen, L. (2019). Composition of event concepts: Evidence for distinct roles for the left and right anterior temporal lobes. Brain and language, 188, 18-27. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2018.11.003

  2018

  • Blanco-Elorrieta, E. & Pylkkänen, L. (2018). Ecological Validity in Bilingualism Research and the Bilingual Advantage. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2018.10.001

  • Kastner, I., Pylkkänen, L., & Marantz, A. (2018). The form of morphemes: MEG evidence from masked priming of two Hebrew templates. Frontiers in Psychology.  doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02163

  • Sharpe, V.*, Reddigari, R*., Pylkkänen, L., & Marantz, A. (2018). Automatic access to verb continuations on the lexical and categorical levels: Evidence from MEG. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience.  doi:10.1080/23273798.2018.1531139

  • Zhang, L., & Pylkkänen, L. (2018). Semantic composition of sentences word by word:MEG evidence for shared processing of conceptual and logical elements. Neuropsychologia, 119, 392-404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.08.016

  • Blanco-Elorrieta, E., Emmorey, K., & Pylkkänen, L. (2018). Decomposing language switching: MEG evidence from bimodal bilinguals. PNAS, 115(39), 9708-9713.  doi:10.1073/pnas.1809779115

  • Flick, G.*, Oseki, Y.*, Kaczmarek, A., Al Kaabi, M., Marantz, A., & Pylkkänen, L. (2018). Building words and phrases in the left temporal lobe. Cortex. (*denotes equal contribution)  doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2018.06.004

  • Zhang, L. & Pylkkänen, L. (2018). Composing lexical vs. functional adjectives in the left temporal lobe: Evidence for uniformity.  Psychonomic Bulletin and Review  doi:10.3758/s13423-018-1469-y

  • Blanco-Elorrieta, E., Kastner, I., Emmorey, K. & Pylkkänen, L. (2018). Shared neural correlates for building phrases in signed and spoken language. Scientific Reports.  doi:10.1038/s41598-018-23915-0

  2017

  • Blanco-Elorrieta, E., Ferreira, V. S., Del Prato, P., & Pylkkänen, L. (2017). The priming of basic combinatory responses in MEG. Cognition, 170, 49-63. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2017.09.010

  • Blanco-Elorrieta, E., & Pylkkänen, L. (2017). Bilingual language switching in the lab vs. in the wild: The spatio-temporal dynamics of adaptive language control. Journal of Neuroscience, 37, 9022-9036. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0553-17.2017

  • Williams, A.*, Reddigari, S.*, & Pylkkänen, L. (2017) Early sensitivity of left perisylvian cortex to relationality in nouns and verbs. Neuropsychologia, 100, 131-143. (*denotes equal contribution) doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.04.029

  2016

  • Brodbeck, C., Gwilliams, L. & Pylkkänen, L. (2016). Language in context: MEG evidence for modality-general and -specific responses to reference resolution. eNeuro, 3(6), e0145-16.2016. doi:10.1523/ENEURO.0145-16.2016 

  • Brodbeck, C., & Pylkkänen, L. (2016). Language in context: Characterizing the comprehension of referential expressions with MEG. NeuroImage, 147, 447-460. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.12.006 

  • Brennan, J. & Pylkkänen, L. (2016). MEG evidence for incremental sentence composition in the anterior temporal lobe. Cognitive Science. doi:10.1111/cogs.12445 

  • Poortman, E., & Pylkkänen, L. (2016). Adjective conjunction as a window into the LATL’s contribution to conceptual combination. Brain and Language, 160, 50-60. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2016.07.006 

  • Ziegler, J., & Pylkkänen, L. (2016). Scalar adjectives and the temporal unfolding of semantic composition. Neuropsychologia, 89, 161-171. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.06.010 

  • Blanco-Elorrieta, E., & Pylkkänen, L. (2016). Bilingual language control in perception vs. action: MEG reveals comprehension mechanisms in anterior cingulate cortex and domain-general control of production in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 36(2), 290-301. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2597-15.2016 

  • Blanco-Elorrieta, E., & Pylkkänen, L. (2016). Composition of complex numbers: Delineating the computational role of the left anterior temporal lobe. NeuroImage, 124, 194-203. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.08.049 

  2015

  • Brodbeck, C., Gwilliams, L., & Pylkkänen, L. (2015). EEG can track the time course of successful reference resolution in small visual worlds. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01787 

  • Leiken, K., McElree, B., & Pylkkänen, L. (2015). Filling predictable and unpredictable gaps, with and without similarity-based interference: Evidence for LIFG effects of dependency processing. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01739 

  • Pylkkänen, L. (2015). Composition of complex meaning: Interdisciplinary perspectives on the left anterior temporal lobe. In G. Hickok & S. L. Small (Eds.), Neurobiology of Language (622-629). Elsevier. doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407794-2.00050-X

  • Zhang, L., & Pylkkänen, L. (2015). The interplay of composition and concept specificity in the left anterior temporal lobe: An MEG study. NeuroImage, 111, 228-240. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.02.028 

  • Blanco-Elorrieta, E., & Pylkkänen, L. (2015). Brain bases of language selection: MEG evidence from Arabic-English bilingual language production. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00027 

  • Westerlund, M., Kastner, I., Al Kaabi, M., & Pylkkänen, L. (2015). The LATL as locus of composition: MEG evidence from English and Arabic. Brain and Language, 141, 124-134. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2014.12.003 

  2014

  • Leffel, T., Lauter, M., Westerlund, M., & Pylkkänen, L. (2014). Restrictive vs. non-restrictive composition: a magnetoencephalography study. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 29(10), 1191-1204. doi:10.1080/23273798.2014.956765 

  • Pylkkänen, L., Bemis, D. K., & Blanco-Elorrieta, E. (2014). Building phrases in language production: An MEG study of simple composition. Cognition, 133(2), 371-384. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2014.07.001 

  • Del Prato, P., & Pylkkänen, L. (2014). MEG evidence for conceptual combination but not numeral quantification in the left anterior temporal lobe during language production. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00524 

  • Westerlund, M., & Pylkkänen, L. (2014). The role of the left anterior temporal lobe in semantic composition vs. semantic memory. Neuropsychologia, 57, 59-70. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.03.001 

  • Leiken, K., & Pylkkänen, L. (2014). MEG evidence that the LIFG effect of object extraction requires similarity-based interference. Language and Cognitive Processes, 29(3), 381-389. doi:10.1080/01690965.2013.863369 

  2013

  • Linzen, T., Marantz, A., & Pylkkänen, L. (2013). Syntactic context effects in visual word recognition: An MEG study. The Mental Lexicon, 8(2), 117-139. doi:10.1075/ml.8.2.01lin. 

  • Bemis, D. K., & Pylkkänen, L. (2013). Flexible composition: MEG evidence for the deployment of basic combinatorial linguistic mechanisms in response to task demands. PLoS ONE, 8(9), e73949. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0073949 

  • Dikker, S., & Pylkkänen, L. (2013). Predicting language: MEG evidence for lexical preactivation. Brain and Language, 127(1), 55-64. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2012.08.004. 

  • Rabagliati, H., Pylkkänen, L., & Marcus, G. F. (2013). Top-down influence in young children’s linguistic ambiguity resolution. Developmental Psychology, 49(6), 1076-1089. doi:10.1037/a0026918. 

  • Bemis, D. K., & Pylkkänen, L. (2013). Combination across domains: An MEG investigation into the relationship between mathematical, pictorial, and linguistic processing. Frontiers in Psychology, 3. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00583. 

  2012

  • Poeppel, D., Emmorey, K., Hickok, G., & Pylkkänen, L. (2012). Towards a new neurobiology of language. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(41), 14125-14131. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3244-12.2012 

  • Bemis, D. K., & Pylkkänen, L. (2012). Basic linguistic composition recruits the left anterior temporal lobe and left angular gyrus during both listening and reading. Cerebral Cortex, 23(8), 1859-1873. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhs170 

  • Brennan, J., & Pylkkänen, L. (2012). The time-course and spatial distribution of brain activity associated with sentence processing. NeuroImage, 60(2), 1139-1148. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.01.030 

  • Brennan, J., Nir, Y., Hasson, U., Malach, R., Heeger, D., & Pylkkänen, L. (2012). Syntactic structure building in the anterior temporal activity during natural story listening. Brain and Language, 120(2), 163-173. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2010.04.002 

  2011

  • Rabagliati, H., Marcus, G. F., & Pylkkänen, L. (2011). Rules, radical pragmatics and restrictions on regular polysemy. Journal of Semantics, 28(4), 485-512. doi:10.1093/jos/ffr005 

  • Dikker, S., & Pylkkänen, L. (2011). Before the N400: effects of lexical-semantic violations in visual cortex. Brain and Language, 118(1), 23-28. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2011.02.006 

  • Bemis, D. K., & Pylkkänen, L. (2011). Simple Composition: A magnetoencephalography investigation into the comprehension of minimal linguistic phrases. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(8), 2801-2814. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5003-10.2011 

  • Pylkkänen, L., Brennan, J., & Bemis, D. K. (2011). Grounding the cognitive neuroscience of semantics in linguistic theory. Language and Cognitive Processes, 26(9), 1317-1337. doi:10.1080/01690965.2010.527490 

  2010

  • Rabagliati, H. A., Marcus, G. F., & Pylkkänen, L. (2010). Shifting senses in lexical semantic development. Cognition, 117(1), 17-37. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2010.06.007 

  • Pylkkänen, L., & Okano, K. (2010). The nature of abstract orthographic codes: Evidence from masked priming and magnetoencephalography. PLoS ONE, 5(5), e10793. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010793 

  • Brennan, J., & Pylkkänen, L. (2010). Processing psych verbs: Behavioral and MEG measures of two different types of semantic complexity. Language and Cognitive Processes, 25(6), 777-807. doi:10.1080/01690961003616840 

  • Dikker, S., Rabagliati, H., Farmer, T. A., & Pylkkänen, L. (2010). Early occipital sensitivity to syntactic category is based on form typicality. Psychological Science, 21(5), 629-634. doi:10.1177/0956797610367751 

  2009

  • Pylkkänen, L., Oliveri, B., & Smart, A. (2009). Semantics vs. world knowledge in prefrontal cortex. Language and Cognitive Processes, 24(9), 1313-1334. doi:10.1080/01690960903120176 

  • Dikker, S., Rabagliati, H., & Pylkkänen, L. (2009). Sensitivity to syntax in visual cortex. Cognition, 110(3), 293-321. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2008.09.008 [BibTeX]

  • Zweig, E., & Pylkkänen, L. (2009). A visual M170 effect of morphological complexity. Language and Cognitive Processes, 24(3), 412-439. doi:10.1080/01690960802180420 

  • Pylkkänen, L., Martin, A. E., McElree, B., & Smart, A. (2009). The anterior midline field: Coercion or decision making? Brain and Language, 108(3), 184-190. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2008.06.006 

  2008

  • Pylkkänen, L. (2008). Mismatching meanings in brain and behavior. Language and Linguistics Compass, 2(4), 712-738. doi:10.1111/j.1749-818x.2008.00073.x 

  • Brennan, J., & Pylkkänen, L. (2008). Processing events: Behavioral and neuromagnetic correlates of aspectual coercion. Brain and Language, 106(2), 132-143. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2008.04.003 

  • Harris, J., Pylkkänen, L., McElree, B., & Frisson, S. (2008). The cost of question concealment: Eye-tracking and MEG evidence. Brain and Language, 107(1), 44-61. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2007.09.001 

  2007

  • Pylkkänen, L., & McElree, B. (2007). An MEG study of silent meaning. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19(11), 1905-1921. doi:10.1162/jocn.2007.19.11.1905 

  2006

  • Pylkkänen, L., & McElree, B. (2006). The syntax-semantic interface: On-line composition of sentence meaning. In M. Traxler & M. A. Gernsbacher (Eds.), Handbook of Psycholinguistics (2nd Ed.) (537-577). New York, NY: Elsevier. 

  • McElree, B., Pylkkänen, L., Pickering, M., & Traxler, M. (2006). A time course analysis of enriched composition. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 13(1), 53-59. doi:10.3758/BF03193812 

  • Pylkkänen, L., Llinás, R., & Murphy, G. (2006). The representation of polysemy: MEG evidence. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18(1), 97-109. doi:10.1162/089892906775250003 

  2004

  • Pylkkänen, L., Feintuch, S., Hopkins, E., & Marantz, A. (2004). Neural correlates of the effects of morphological family frequency and family size: an MEG study. Cognition, 91(3), B35-B45. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2003.09.008 

  2003

  • Pylkkänen, L., & Marantz, A. (2003). Tracking the time course of word recognition with MEG. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(5), 187-189. doi:10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00092-5 

  2002

  • Pylkkänen, L., Stringfellow, A., & Marantz, A. (2002). Neuromagnetic evidence for the timing of lexical activation: An MEG component sensitive to phonotactic probability but not to neighborhood density. Brain and Language, 81(1), 666-678. doi:10.1006/brln.2001.2555 

  2000

  • Pylkkänen, L., Stringfellow, A., Flagg, E., & Marantz, A. (2000). A neural response sensitive to repetition and phonotactic probability: MEG investigations of lexical access. Proceedings of Biomag, 12. [citation]