Frequency-specific oscillations track parallel processing of linguistic structural and lexical-semantic information from perception to decision

Abstract

The ability to perceive linguistic features is essential for language comprehension, yet how our brains dynamically recognize, integrate and process distinct linguistic features is still controversial. Here, we employ magnetoencephalography to examine the spatiotemporal organization of two word-level dimensions: syllabic structural and lexical-semantic regularities using a novel auditory linguistic task with an orthogonal design. During the recognition of linguistic features, we identify time-dependent and frequency-specific oscillations in temporal-frontal, para-hippocampal, parietal areas, supporting neural dynamics spanning from linguistic to memory and decision-making processing. Decoding linguistic features in timeseries reveals parallel activities of structure and lexical semantics through distinct neural networks, which beyond the language network extending from auditory cortex to language–sensorimotor hubs. By linking behavior to neural responses, we uncover the frontal-parietal network associated with individual differences in response to dual-feature violations. Overall, our findings reveal the concurrent availability of structural and lexical-semantic representation and characterize task-specific choice tendency under dual-feature conflict.