MODSEM. Graded network activation and connectivity during semantic processing depending on modality

For any concept, we have knowledge about its characteristics and associations - for example, a rabbit is furry, has long ears and eats carrots. However, specific features of concepts are relevant in different situations, so how do we flexibly retrieve this information in an adaptive way tailored to our current circumstances? This project will test and extend a novel theoretical framework (the "graded constraints" hypothesis) which suggests that flexible semantic cognition emerges from a spectrum of large-scale networks that support more automatic to controlled patterns of conceptual retrieval, with these networks organised in a systematic fashion along the cortical surface. We will investigate how connectivity and activation along these networks varies depending on the characteristics or demands of the specific semantic processing task, and what consequences do individual differences in organisation of these networks have on semantic processing.