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Volume 532 Issue 7600, 28 April 2016

It is thought that the meanings of words and language are represented in a semantic system distributed across much of the cerebral cortex. However, little is known about the detailed functional and anatomical organization of this network. Alex Huth, Jack Gallant and colleagues set out to map the functional representations of semantic meaning in the human brain using voxel-based modelling of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recordings made while subjects listened to natural narrative speech. They find that each semantic concept is represented in multiple semantic areas, and each semantic area represents multiple semantic concepts. The recovered semantic maps are largely consistent across subjects, however, providing the basis for a semantic atlas that can be used for future studies of language processing. An interactive version of the atlas can be explored at http://gallantlab.org/huth2016. The cover shows the cortical surface of one subject, overlaid with words predicted to cause particularly strong responses at the corresponding cortical location. Word colours indicate semantic categories: for example, green words are mostly visual and tactile concepts, and red words are mostly social concepts. White lines show the outlines of previously known regions of interest. Cover: Alex Huth

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