Two empirical studies are assessing the neural signatures of natural language processing, focusing on how the brain processes meaningful and related information from sentences across time. Using electroencephalography (EEG) to non-invasively record neural activity in human subjects, these studies are assessing neural activity reflecting discourse processing. A short-term goal of this research is to provide an empirical test of the assemblies hypothesis, which proposes an intermediate level of organization of brain computation, on a scale far larger than that of individual neurons and synapses, and realized by highly interconnected sets of assemblies. Long-term goals include experiments to test whether assembly operations occur in discourse processing and during other cognitive and neural processes (e.g., visual perception). This research will have implications for understanding the neural instantiation of language processing and natural intelligence in the human brain and may provide useful algorithms for enhancing large language models used in AI.