Mapping words to parts of the brain

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers monitored brain activity in seven people while the subjects listened to two hours of stories from the Moth Radio Hour. The researchers then used that data to map words to parts of the brain. An interactive viewer by Alexander Huth lets you see what words lit up parts of the brain for one of the subjects.

Colors represent semantic categories such as numeric, social, and violent. Just click on a part of the brain to see which words most associated with an area (or a voxel they’re called). Pan, zoom, and rotate for various angles. [via @wattenberg]