@article {Toneva2020.09.28.316935, author = {Mariya Toneva and Tom M. Mitchell and Leila Wehbe}, title = {Combining computational controls with natural text reveals new aspects of meaning composition}, elocation-id = {2020.09.28.316935}, year = {2020}, doi = {10.1101/2020.09.28.316935}, publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory}, abstract = {To study a core component of human intelligence{\textemdash}our ability to combine the meaning of words{\textemdash}neuroscientists look for neural correlates of meaning composition, such as brain activity proportional to the difficulty of understanding a sentence. However, little is known about the product of meaning composition{\textemdash}the combined meaning of words beyond their individual meaning. We term this product {\textquotedblleft}supra-word meaning{\textquotedblright} and devise a computational representation for it by using recent neural network algorithms and a new technique to disentangle composed-from individual-word meaning. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we reveal that hubs that are thought to process lexical-level meaning also maintain supra-word meaning, suggesting a common substrate for lexical and combinatorial semantics. Surprisingly, we cannot detect supra-word meaning in magnetoencephalography, which suggests that composed meaning is maintained through a different neural mechanism than synchronized firing. This sensitivity difference has implications for past neuroimaging results and future wearable neurotechnology.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.}, URL = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/17/2020.09.28.316935}, eprint = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/17/2020.09.28.316935.full.pdf}, journal = {bioRxiv} }