Two key assumptions underpin the cognitive neuroscience of language. First, there is a clear-cut split between the processes involved in understanding an utterance (recognizing a word, resolving ambiguity) and the processes involved in crafting that utterance (translating an idea into sound or writing). For example, the “classic” Lichtheim–Broca–Wernicke model proposes distinct anatomical pathways associated with production and comprehension, primarily on the basis of deficit–lesion correlations in aphasia (1). Second, researchers assume that the linguistic mechanisms are lateralized, with production processes (e.g., lexical selection, articulation) and, to some extent, comprehension processes primarily occurring in the left hemisphere. Silbert et al. (2) report a neuroimaging study based on the production and comprehension of naturalistic narrative that challenges these two assumptions.
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