# A Neurobiologically Motivated Analysis of Distributional Semantic Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.01830 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.01830/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 6 Feb 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Learning to Look at the Other Side: A Semantic Probing Study of Word Embeddings in LLMs with Enabled Bidirectional Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.01652/) (2025)
- [Improving Interpretability of Lexical Semantic Change with Neurobiological Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.09760/) (2026)
- [Domain Embeddings for Generating Complex Descriptions of Concepts in Italian Language](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.16632/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The pervasive use of distributional semantic models or word embeddings in a variety of research fields is due to their remarkable ability to represent the meanings of words for both practical application and cognitive modeling. However, little has been known about what kind of information is encoded in text-based word vectors. This lack of understanding is particularly problematic when word vectors are regarded as a model of semantic representation for abstract concepts. This paper attempts to reveal the internal information of distributional word vectors by the analysis using Binder et al.'s (2016) brain-based vectors, explicitly structured conceptual representations based on neurobiologically motivated attributes. In the analysis, the mapping from text-based vectors to brain-based vectors is trained and prediction performance is evaluated by comparing the estimated and original brain-based vectors. The analysis demonstrates that social and cognitive information is better encoded in text-based word vectors, but emotional information is not. This result is discussed in terms of embodied theories for abstract concepts.