{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,18]],"date-time":"2026-04-18T05:21:59Z","timestamp":1776489719413,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)","issue":"5669","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Science"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2004,4,16]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Although the sentences that we hear or read have meaning, this does not necessarily mean that they are also true. Relatively little is known about the critical brain structures for, and the relative time course of, establishing the meaning and truth of linguistic expressions. We present electroencephalogram data that show the rapid parallel integration of both semantic and world knowledge during the interpretation of a sentence. Data from functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that the left inferior prefrontal cortex is involved in the integration of both meaning and world knowledge. Finally, oscillatory brain responses indicate that the brain keeps a record of what makes a sentence hard to interpret.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1095455","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2004,3,23]],"date-time":"2004-03-23T01:23:55Z","timestamp":1080005035000},"page":"438-441","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":917,"title":["Integration of Word Meaning and World Knowledge in Language Comprehension"],"prefix":"10.1126","volume":"304","author":[{"given":"Peter","family":"Hagoort","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands."},{"name":"Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands."},{"name":"Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands."}]},{"given":"Lea","family":"Hald","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands."},{"name":"Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands."},{"name":"Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands."}]},{"given":"Marcel","family":"Bastiaansen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands."},{"name":"Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands."},{"name":"Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands."}]},{"given":"Karl Magnus","family":"Petersson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands."},{"name":"Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands."},{"name":"Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands."}]}],"member":"221","reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_1_2_2","first-page":"25","volume":"100","year":"1892","unstructured":"G. Frege, Z. Philosophie Philosophische Kritik100, 25 (1892).","journal-title":"Z. Philosophie Philosophische Kritik"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_3_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"P. A. M. Seuren Western Linguistics: An Historical Introduction (Blackwell Oxford 1998).","DOI":"10.1002\/9781444307467"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"R. Jackendoff Foundations of Language: Brain Grammar Evolution (Oxford Univ. Press Oxford 2003).","DOI":"10.1093\/acprof:oso\/9780198270126.001.0001"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_5_2","unstructured":"Although for Frege ( 1 ) reference was established relative to objects in the world here we follow Jackendoff's suggestion ( 3 ) that this is done relative to objects and the state of affairs as mentally represented."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_6_2","first-page":"434","year":"1990","unstructured":"S. Zola-Morgan, L. R. Squire, in The Development and Neural Bases of Higher Cognitive Functions (New York Academy of Sciences, New York, 1990), pp. 434\u2013456.","journal-title":"The Development and Neural Bases of Higher Cognitive Functions"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_7_2","unstructured":"N. Chomsky Reflections on Language (Pantheon New York 1975)."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_8_2","unstructured":"J. Katz Semantic Theory (Harper & Row New York 1972)."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_9_2","unstructured":"D. Sperber D. Wilson Relevance (Harvard Univ. Press Cambridge MA 1986)."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_10_2","first-page":"27","year":"1989","unstructured":"K. I. Forster, in Sentence Processing, W. E. Cooper, C. T. Walker, Eds. (Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1989), pp. 27\u201385.","journal-title":"Sentence Processing"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_11_2","unstructured":"H. H. Clark Using Language (Cambridge Univ. Press Cambridge 1996)."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_12_2","unstructured":"Often word meanings can only be fully determined by invoking world knowledge. For instance the meaning of \u201cflat\u201d in a \u201cflat road\u201d implies the absence of holes. However in the expression \u201ca flat tire \u201d it indicates the presence of a hole. The meaning of \u201cfinish\u201d in the phrase \u201cBill finished the book\u201d implies that Bill completed reading the book. However the phrase \u201cthe goat finished the book\u201d can only be interpreted as the goat eating or destroying the book. The examples illustrate that word meaning is often underdetermined and necessarily intertwined with general world knowledge. In such cases it is hard to see how the integration of lexical meaning and general world knowledge could be strictly separated ( 3 31 )."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_13_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/01690968808402079"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_14_2","unstructured":"ERPs for 30 subjects were averaged time-locked to the onset of the critical words with 40 items per condition. Sentences were presented word by word on the center of a computer screen with a stimulus onset asynchrony of 600 ms. While subjects were reading the sentences their EEG was recorded and amplified with a high-cut-off frequency of 70 Hz a time constant of 8 s and a sampling frequency of 200 Hz."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_15_2","unstructured":"Materials and methods are available as supporting material on Science Online."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_16_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.7350657"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_17_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1162\/jocn.1993.5.1.34"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_18_2","first-page":"213","year":"1999","unstructured":"C. M. Brown, P. Hagoort, in Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing, M. W. Crocker, M. Pickering, C. Clifton Jr., Eds. (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1999), pp. 213\u2013237.","journal-title":"Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_19_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/35067550"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_20_2","unstructured":"We obtained TFRs of the single-trial EEG data by convolving complex Morlet wavelets with the EEG data and computing the squared norm for the result of the convolution. We used wavelets with a 7-cycle width with frequencies ranging from 1 to 70 Hz in 1-Hz steps. Power values thus obtained were expressed as a percentage change relative to the power in a baseline interval which was taken from 150 to 0 ms before the onset of the critical word. This was done in order to normalize for individual differences in EEG power and differences in baseline power between different frequency bands. Two relevant time-frequency components were identified: (i) a theta component ranging from 4 to 7 Hz and from 300 to 800 ms after word onset and (ii) a gamma component ranging from 35 to 45 Hz and from 400 to 600 ms after word onset."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_21_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S1364-6613(99)01299-1"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_22_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/17126"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_23_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"M. Bastiaansen P. Hagoort Cortex39 (2003).","DOI":"10.1016\/S0010-9452(08)70873-6"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_24_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1046\/j.1460-9568.2002.01975.x"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_25_2","unstructured":"Whole brain T2*-weighted echo planar imaging blood oxygen level\u2013dependent (EPI-BOLD) fMRI data were acquired with a Siemens Sonata 1.5-T magnetic resonance scanner with interleaved slice ordering a volume repetition time of 2.48 s an echo time of 40 ms a 90\u00b0 flip angle 31 horizontal slices a 64 \u00d7 64 slice matrix and isotropic voxel size of 3.5 \u00d7 3.5 \u00d7 3.5 mm. For the structural magnetic resonance image we used a high-resolution (isotropic voxels of 1 mm 3 ) T1-weighted magnetization-prepared rapid gradient-echo pulse sequence. The fMRI data were preprocessed and analyzed by statistical parametric mapping with SPM99 software (http:\/\/www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk\/spm99)."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_26_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/331585a0"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_27_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0896-6273(02)00800-0"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_28_2","first-page":"1","volume":"88","year":"1994","unstructured":"E. Halgrenet al., J. Psychophysiol.88, 1 (1994).","journal-title":"J. Psychophysiol."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_29_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1006\/nimg.2002.1268"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_30_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.7777863"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_31_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1162\/089892999563724"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_32_2","unstructured":"P. A. M. Seuren Discourse Semantics (Basil Blackwell Oxford 1985)."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_33_2","unstructured":"We thank P. Indefrey P. Fries P. A. M. Seuren and M. van Turennout for helpful discussions. Supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research grant no. 400-56-384 (P.H.)."}],"container-title":["Science"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1126\/science.1095455","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,10]],"date-time":"2024-01-10T03:40:37Z","timestamp":1704858037000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.1095455"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2004,4,16]]},"references-count":32,"journal-issue":{"issue":"5669","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2004,4,16]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1126\/science.1095455"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/science.1095455","relation":{},"ISSN":["0036-8075","1095-9203"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0036-8075","type":"print"},{"value":"1095-9203","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2004,4,16]]}}}