Shanshan Zhen, Mario Martinez-Saito, Rongjun Yu, Beyond what was said: Neural computations underlying pragmatic reasoning in referential communication, NeuroImage, Volume 306, 2025, 121022, ISSN 1053-8119,
Their findings reveal that when a participant quickly understood the intended meaning of a phrase and was confident in their answer, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), involved in decision-making, and the ventral striatum (VS), associated with the feeling of having made the right choice, were active.
However, when levels of complexity the meaning
of an utterance was ambiguous, the brain hong kong phone number library activated other regions: the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), which analyses the interlocutor’s intentions and helps make sense of complex situations; the anterior insula (AI), which responds to uncertainty and tension by contributing to the generation of these professions are not for women emotions; and the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), responsible for language processing. The more complex the task, the more actively these regions interacted, helping the brain correctly interpret the meaning.
The researchers also found that the ability to understand others’ thoughts and emotions contributed to successful performance. Participants who performed better exhibited stronger functional connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and the anterior insular cortex, indicating greater flexibility in their reasoning. Previously, pragmatic reasoning was studied within the framework of general models that involve common cognitive mechanisms. However, this study reveals that interpretation strategies can differ among individuals.
Mario Martinez-Saito
‘Language comprehension is not just a matter of intelligence or memory. Our brain uses a complex system that integrates language, social cognition, and context analysis,’ explains Mario Martinez-Saito, Research Fellow at the HSE International Laboratory of Social Neurobiology. ‘The results obtained could malaysia numbers list also have practical applications. Perhaps, thanks to such research, your voice assistant will finally be able to distinguish between sincere praise and sarcasm.’
Maxim Lobanov, Acting Director of the Digital Educational Platforms Centre at PJSC Promsvyazbank, provided an update on the primary technological resource—the Sodruzhestvo digital platform. His report detailed the platform’s scale, capabilities, content, and future development plans.