Project Details
Projekt
Understanding the Cross-Linguistic Brain Basis of Sentence Processing through Interpretable Language Technology
Applicant
Dr. Lars Meyer
Subject Area
Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
Term
since 2026
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 578793449
Large Language Models (LLMs) enjoy increasing popularity throughout our professional and private lives. This includes scientific work, where LLMs are increasingly used as tools of investigation. One key area of inquiry is the neurobiology of language, where scientists have found that LLMs provide unprecedented fit to human neuroimaging data acquired during language comprehension. Yet, the implications of such findings remain elusive, because current LLMs lack interpretability in terms of human psycholinguistic processes. Which psycholinguistic processes does the brain activity that is being fit by LLMs correspond to? Does the fit of LLMs to human neuroimaging data actually result from human-like psycholinguistic processes that are in some way implicit to current LLMs? And if it does—can we employ interpretable LLMs to address questions that have so far been left unanswered in the neurobiology of language? The current proposal pursues three objectives along these lines. First, we lay out a strategy to make LLMs mechanistically interpretable in terms of the cognitive operations that subserve sentence processing in humans. Second, we assess whether such interpretations can shed light on the relation between neuroimaging data and LLMs. And third, we attempt to establish interpretable LLMs as scientific tools for investigating the neurobiology of language, not just in one, but in many human languages.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
International Connection
United Kingdom, USA
Cooperation Partners
Professor John T. Hale, Ph.D.; Professor Richard L. Lewis, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Milos Stanojevic
