Conceptual Combination in The Cognitive Neurosciences

Much has been learned about how individual concepts and semantic dimensions are represented in the human brain using methods from the field of cognitive neuroscience; however, the process of conceptual combination, in which a new concept is created from pre-existing concepts, has received far less attention. We discuss theories and findings from cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience that shed light on the processing stages and neural systems that allow humans to form new conceptual combinations. We review systematic and creative applications of cognitive neuroscience methods, including neuroimaging, neuropsychological patients, neurostimulation and behavioral studies that have yielded fascinating insights into the cognitive nature and neural underpinnings of conceptual combination. Studies have revealed important features of the cognitive processes that are central to successful conceptual combination. Furthermore, we are beginning to understand how regions of the semantic system, such as the anterior temporal lobe and angular gyrus, integrate features and concepts, and evaluate the plausibility of potential resulting combinations, bridging work in linguistics and semantic memory. Despite the relative newness of these questions for cognitive neuroscience, the investigations we review give a very strong foundation for ongoing and future work that seeks to fully understand how the human brain can flexibly integrate existing concepts to form new and never-before experienced combinations at will.