Language control and lexical competition in bilinguals: an event-related FMRI study.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_A7C2429C1C3A
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Language control and lexical competition in bilinguals: an event-related FMRI study.
Journal
Cerebral Cortex
Author(s)
Abutalebi J., Annoni J.M., Zimine I., Pegna A.J., Seghier M.L., Lee-Jahnke H., Lazeyras F., Cappa S.F., Khateb A.
ISSN
1460-2199[electronic]
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2008
Volume
18
Number
7
Pages
1496-1505
Language
english
Notes
Journal article --- Old month value: Oct 18
Abstract
Language selection (or control) refers to the cognitive mechanism that controls which language to use at a given moment and context. It allows bilinguals to selectively communicate in one target language while minimizing the interferences from the nontarget language. Previous studies have suggested the participation in language control of different brain areas. However, the question remains whether the selection of one language among others relies on a language-specific neural module or general executive regions that also allow switching between different competing behavioral responses including the switching between various linguistic registers. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated the neural correlates of language selection processes in German-French bilingual subjects during picture naming in different monolingual and bilingual selection contexts. We show that naming in the first language in the bilingual context (compared with monolingual contexts) increased activation in the left caudate and anterior cingulate cortex. Furthermore, the activation of these areas is even more extended when the subjects are using a second weaker language. These findings show that language control processes engaged in contexts during which both languages must remain active recruit the left caudate and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in a manner that can be distinguished from areas engaged in intralanguage task switching.
Keywords
Adult, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Cognition, Evoked Potentials, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Multilingualism, Semantics, Speech
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
25/01/2008 12:37
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:12
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