Neural dynamics of social verb processing: an MEG study

Human vocabularies include specific words to communicate interpersonal behaviors, a core linguistic function mainly afforded by social verbs (SVs). This skill has been proposed to engage dedicated systems subserving social knowledge. Yet, neurocognitive evidence is scarce, and no study has examined spectro-temporal and spatial signatures of SV access. Here, we combined magnetoencephalography and time-resolved decoding methods to characterize the neural dynamics underpinning SVs, relative to nonsocial verbs (nSVs), via a lexical decision task. Time-frequency analysis revealed stronger beta (20 Hz) power decreases for SVs in right fronto-temporal sensors at early stages. Time-resolved decoding showed that beta oscillations significantly discriminated SVs and nSVs between 180 and 230 ms. Sources of this effect were traced to the right anterior superior temporal gyrus (a key hub underpinning social conceptual knowledge) as well as parietal, pre/motor and prefrontal cortices supporting nonverbal social cognition. Finally, representational similarity analyses showed that the observed fronto-temporal neural patterns were specifically predicted by verbs’ socialness, as opposed to other psycholinguistic dimensions such as sensorimotor content, emotional valence, arousal, and concreteness. Overall, verbal conveyance of socialness seems to involve distinct neurolinguistic patterns, partly shared by more general sociocognitive and lexicosemantic processes.