Richard J. Binney

The ventrolateral anterior temporal lobe (vlATL), including the anterior inferior temporal and fusiform gyri, is the centre of a supramodal and category-general hub for semantic representation. Dorsolateral ATL regions, such as the temporal pole (TP) and anterior middle temporal gyrus (aMTG), have been associated with more specialised semantic function, including social concept processing, although the precise location and laterality of these effects vary across studies, prohibiting firm conclusions. The ‘socialness’ of concepts has been defined in numerous different ways which, along with uncontrolled effects of other semantic dimensions, could explain inconsistencies in previous behavioural and neuroimaging findings. Therefore, we used a new set of validated socialness norms to compare social and non-social concept processing, while controlling for other important semantic variables, including concreteness and valence. Moreover, we report the first investigation of a potential link between socialness and motivation. This was aimed at unpacking the informational content or processes that make social concepts unique, and particularly a putative role of reward processing. We report two pre-registered experiments, one behavioural (N = 89) and one using fMRI (N = 30), examining the orthogonal effects of socialness and motivation on semantic decisions. Consistent with other recent findings, social concepts were processed more accurately than non-social concepts. Left TP activation was driven by social concepts but not non-social concepts, and some evidence suggests there is also right TP selectivity for social concepts. All concept types engaged the left vlATL and bilateral aMTG suggestive of a category-general semantic function. Multivariate pattern analyses found distinguishable local activation patterns associated with social vs non-social concepts in the left TP, aMTG, and vlATL, and for high vs low motivation concepts in the left TP and aMTG. The activation patterns encoding socialness in the aMTG generalized across levels of motivation, suggesting that socialness is encoded independently of motivation- related information. These findings align with multiple representation theories that claim social and reward-related experiences contribute to semantic representation. They also particularly pinpoint the left TP as having a preference for social concepts.

The anterior temporal lobe (ATL) is critical for semantic cognition, yet its organisation remains debated. Some evidence supports a patchwork of discrete, domain-specific parcels, while the graded hub hypothesis proposes smooth, ordered transitions. We examined regions along ATL’s curvature, testing whether connectivity profiles varied systematically or discontinuously along whole-brain dimensions of functional connectivity. The structural and functional connectivity of ATL varied largely systematically on the heteromodal-unimodal dimension, with intermediate ventral parcels showing stronger heteromodal connectivity; however, medial parcels deviated from this pattern. On the auditory-motor to visual dimension, there were partial dorsal-to-medial shifts in connectivity, but parcels at both ends did not follow this trend. There were also systematic dorsal-to-medial connectivity shifts between default and control networks. Individual differences in structural connectivity predicted activation in auditory tasks. These results largely support a graded hub model of ATL, while also revealing non-systematic functional variation that may enable flexible semantic processing.

Excessive self-blaming emotions are commonly observed in anxiety disorders, with qualitatively similar symptomatology reported in subclinical populations. Interpretation of moral information requires assessing the social conceptual information, a process overseen by the superior anterior temporal lobe (sATL). Feelings of self-blame evoke interactions of sATL and socio-affective regions, and previous research shows that subclinical anxiety modulates the organisation of the self-blame circuitry. This study aimed to extend these findings by exploring links of trait-anxiety with (i) self-blaming emotions and associated behaviours in an experimental task, and (ii) self-blame-dependent neural activity and connectivity, as observed during reliving of autobiographical guilt memories. We also explored the role of resting-state fMRI in linking these phenomena. Increased anxiety was linked to stronger self-blaming emotions, and more pronounced self-attacking and hiding. When experiencing negative emotions about themselves (i.e. shame and self-anger), anxious individuals were also less likely to disengage from self-focused thoughts. These behavioural findings were paralleled by enhanced self-blame-related connectivity between the left sATL and bilateral posterior subgenual cingulate cortex. Distinct patterns of activity and connectivity within the ATL-related circuitry were furthermore linked to individual differences in intensity of the self-blaming emotions and approach-avoidance motivation towards the guilt memories. As such, the results of the current study link stronger self-blaming emotions in anxious individuals with specific maladaptive patterns of behaviour. Furthermore, the work provides robust evidence for the important role of ATL-related circuitry in self-blame processing, supporting its broader involvement in social conceptual processing and its alterations in subclinical anxiety.

Semantic representations arise from a distillation of multiple sources of information, including sensory, motor, affective, interoceptive, linguistic and cognitive experience. Experience of reward is a highly salient aspect of many human activities, and yet its contribution to semantic processing is not well understood. To address this, the present study took a psycholinguistic approach to measuring and evaluating associations with reward as a facet of word meaning. Behavioural and neurophysiological data suggest that reward processing involves multiple stages and mechanisms. For instance, systems associated with the experience and anticipation of pleasure in response to a reward appear distinct from motivational processes that underlie the pursuit of a stimulus. We sought to collect a novel set of word ratings that capture the full extent of reward-related experience. Initial explorations revealed that reward/pleasure ratings are highly correlated with existing norms of emotional valence. Ratings of association with motivation, however, were only moderately correlated with valence, suggesting they capture distinct semantic information. We therefore conducted a preregistered large-scale study to obtain motivation ratings for 8,601 words. Our analyses suggest these ratings capture aspects of word meaning which are distinct from other semantic dimensions, such as concreteness and valence. Moreover, they explain unique variance in participant performance on lexical, semantic, and recognition memory tasks. We combined motivation and emotional valence ratings to provide a composite measure that might approximate a more general ‘reward’ construct. However, this did not explain additional variance compared to the individual variables. We discuss the implications of these results for neurocognitive theories of semantics.

Theories of language and conceptual development have proposed that social relevance is helpful for understanding and acquiring the meanings of abstract wor

Preregistration is the act of formally documenting a research plan before collecting (or at least before analysing) the data. It allows those reading a final research report to know which aspects of a study were decided before sight of the data, and which were added later. This enables informed evaluation of the severity with which scientific claims have been tested. We, as the British Neuropsychological Society Open Research Group, conducted a survey to explore awareness and adoption of open research practices within our field. Neuropsychology involves the study of relatively rare or hard-to-access participants, creating practical challenges that, according to our survey, are perceived as barriers to preregistration. We survey the available routes to preregistration, and suggest that the barriers are all surmountable in one way or another. However, there is a tension, in that higher levels of bias control require greater restriction over the flexibility of preregistered studies, but such flexibility is often essential for neuropsychological research. Researchers must therefore consider which route provides the right balance of rigour and pragmatic flexibility to render a preregistered project viable for them. By mapping out the issues and potential solutions, and by signposting relevant resources and publication routes, we hope to facilitate well-reasoned decision-making and empower neuropsychologists to enhance the transparency and rigour of their research. Although we focus neuropsychology, our guidance is applicable to any field that studies hard-to-access human samples, or involves arduous or expensive means of data collection.

Multiple representation theories of semantic processing propose that word meaning is supported by simulated sensorimotor experience in modality‐specific neural regions, as well as in cognitive systems that involve processing of linguistic, emotional, and introspective information. According to the hub‐and‐spoke model of semantic memory, activity from these distributed cortical areas feeds into a primary semantic hub located in the ventral anterior temporal lobe (vATL). In the present pre‐registered study, we examined whether different types of abstract verbs (mental, emotional and nonembodied) and concrete (embodied) verbs all engage the vATL, and also whether they differentially recruit a broader set of distributed neurocognitive systems (consistent with multiple representation theories). Finally, we investigated whether there is information about different verb types distributed across the broader ATL region, consistent with a Graded Semantic Hub Hypothesis. We collected data from 30 participants who completed a syntactic classification task (is it a verb? Yes or no) and a numerical judgment task which served as an active but less semantic baseline task. Whole brain univariate analyses revealed consistent BOLD signal throughout the canonical semantic network, including the left inferior frontal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, and the vATL. All types of abstract verbs engaged the vATL except for mental state verbs. Finally, a multivariate pattern analysis revealed clusters within the ATL that were differentially engaged when processing each type of abstract verb. Our findings extend previous research and suggest that the hub‐and‐spoke hypothesis and the graded semantic hub hypothesis provide a neurobiologically constrained model of semantics that can account for abstract verb representation and processing.

Preregistration is the act of formally documenting a research plan before collecting (or at least before analysing) the data. It allows those reading a final research report to know which aspects of a study were decided before sight of the data, and which were added later. This enables informed evaluation of the severity with which scientific claims have been tested. We, as the British Neuropsychological Society Open Science Group, conducted a survey to explore awareness and adoption of open science practices within our field. Neuropsychology involves the study of relatively rare or hard-to-access participants, creating practical challenges that, according to our survey, are perceived as barriers to preregistration. We survey the available routes to preregistration, and suggest that the barriers are all surmountable in one way or another. However, there is a tension, in that higher levels of bias control require greater restriction over the flexibility of preregistered studies, but such flexibility is often essential for neuropsychological research. Researchers must therefore consider which route provides the right balance of rigour and pragmatic flexibility to render a preregistered project viable for them. By mapping out the issues and potential solutions, and by signposting relevant resources and publication routes, we hope to facilitate well-reasoned decision-making and empower neuropsychologists to enhance the transparency and rigour of their research.

Concepts have traditionally been categorized as either concrete (e.g., ROSE) or abstract (e.g., ROMANCE) based on whether they have a direct connection to