Navigating Concepts in the Human Mind Unravels the Latent Geometry of Its Semantic Space

Abstract

Mechanisms for retrieving basic knowledge in the human mind are still unknown. Exploration is usually represented by cognitive units, i.e., concepts, linked together by associative relationships forming semantic networks. However, understanding how humans navigate such networks remains elusive, because the underlying topology of concepts cannot be observed directly, and only functional representations are accessible. Here, we overcome those limitations and show that the hypothesis of an underlying, latent geometry characterizing the human mind is plausible. We characterize this geometry by means of adequate descriptors for exploring and navigating dynamics, demonstrating that they can capture the differences between healthy subjects and patients at different stages of dementia. Our results provide the first fundamental step to develop a new unifying conceptual and computational framework that can be used to support the assessment of neurodegenerative diseases from language and semantic memory retrieval tasks, as well as helping develop targeted nonpharmacological therapies to maintain residual cognitive capacity.