Productivity matters for the neural processing of novel words, but not existing ones

Key Points

• To examine how productivity affects neural processing of novel and existing words in the brain.
• Used a design manipulating plausible novel words to assess their processing in the brain.
• Measured brain activity in the temporal and frontal lobes during word processing.
• Analyzed behavioral responses to the acceptability of novel words.
• No significant difference in neural processing of novel versus existing words in the temporal and frontal lobes.
• Productivity influenced processing of novel words, with the ‘deriver’ combination showing the most significant differences.
• Novel words increased in acceptability, with ‘deriver’ accepted 69% of the time.