Executive and language systems competitively shape predictive processing during reading

In 25 healthy adults, combined TMS to left angular gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex selectively weakened reading-time costs of unexpected words only when reading competed with an n-back working-memory task.

• Why it matters: It was unclear whether linguistic prediction during reading depends on the same domain-general executive resources used in other demanding cognition, especially under competing cognitive load.
• What they did: Across three TMS sessions (angular gyrus alone, angular gyrus plus dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, or sham), participants did self-paced naturalistic reading, an n-back task, and a dual reading–n-back condition; computational decision models isolated process changes.
• The result: Modeling indicated a bidirectional link: unpredictable words also disrupted concurrent working-memory decisions, slowing evidence accumulation and increasing response caution, implying dynamic coupling under load.

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