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  Scientists have created an atlas of the brain that shows how the meanings of words are arranged across different regions of the brain. The atlas shows in rainbow colours how individual words and their meanings can be grouped together in areas of the brain.
  Our goal was to build a giant atlas that shows how one speci c aspect of language is represented in the brain, in this case semantics (the meanings of words), said Jack Gallant, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley.
  No single brain region holds one word or concept. A single brain spot is associated with a number of related words. And, each single word lights up many different brain spots. Together, they make up networks that represent the meanings of each word we use: life and love, death and taxes. All light up their own networks.
  The atlas was described as a great achievement by one researcher who was not involved in the study. The atlas shows how modern imaging can transform our knowledge of how the brain does some of its most important tasks. If scientists make further advances, the technology could have an enormous impact on medicine and other areas of study.
  It is possible that this approach could be used to decode information about what words a person is hearing, reading or possibly even thinking, said Alexander Huth, the main author of the study. One possible use would be a language decoder that could allow people who cant talk, because they have a serious illness, to speak through a computer.
  To create the atlas, the scientists recorded peoples brain activity while they listened to stories. Then, they matched the transcripts of the stories with the brain activity data to show how groups of related words produced brain responses in 50,000 to 80,000 pea-sized spots all over the cerebral cortex.
  Huth used short, compelling stories. The stories had to be interesting so that the people in the experiment would focus on the words and not drift off. Seven people listened to two hours of stories each. Per person, that was a total of about 25,000 words  and more than 3,000 different words  as they lay in the scanner.
  The atlas shows how words and related terms light up the same regions of the brain. For example, on the left-hand side of the brain, above the ear, is one of the tiny regions that represents the word victim. The same region responds to killed, convicted, murdered and confessed. On the brains right-hand side, near the top of the head, is one of the brain spots activated by family terms: wife, husband, children, parents.
  Each word is represented by more than one spot because words often have several meanings. One part of the brain, for example, responds to the word top, as well as other words that describe clothing. But, the word top lights up many other regions. One of them responds to numbers and measurements, another to buildings and places. The scientists have created an interactive website where the public can explore the brain atlas.
  Interestingly, the brain atlases were similar for all the people in the experiment. This suggests that their brains organized the meanings of words in the same way. The scientists only scanned  ve men and two women, however. All are native English speakers. It is highly possible that people from different backgrounds and cultures will have different semantic brain atlases.
  Using the atlas, researchers can now piece together the brain networks that represent very different concepts, from numbers to murder and religion. The idea of murder is represented a lot in the brain, Gallant said.
  Uri Hasson, a neuroscientist at Princeton University, said the work was great. He said that many studies just looked at brain activity when a single word or sentence was spoken but Gallants team had shed light on how the brain worked in a real-world scenario. The next step, he said, was to create a more complete and precise semantic brain atlas. In the future, Hasson believes it will be possible to reconstruct the words a person is thinking from their brain activity. The ethical implications are enormous.
  Lorraine Tyler, a neuroscientist and head of the Centre for Speech, Language and the Brain at Cambridge University, said the research was a great achievement. But, the brain atlas in its current form does not show small differences in word meanings. This research is  Centre for Speech, Language and the Brain at Cambridge University, said the research was a great achievement. But, the brain atlas in its current form does not show small differences in word meanings. This research is 4 Comprehension check ground-breaking but there is still a lot to learn about how semantics is represented in the brain.