The neural basis of free language choice in bilingual speakers: Disentangling language choice and language execution

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Carlo ReverberiJohn-Dylan Haynes

Abstract

For everyday communication, bilingual speakers need to face the complex task of rapidly choosing the most appropriate language given the context, maintaining this choice over the current communicative act, and shielding lexical selection from competing alternatives from non-target languages. Yet, speech production of bilinguals is typically flawless and fluent. Most of the studies available to date constrain speakers' language choice by cueing the target language and conflate language choice with language use. This left largely unexplored the neural mechanisms underlying free language choice, i.e., the voluntary situation of choosing the language to speak. In this study, we used fMRI and Multivariate Pattern Analysis to identify brain regions encoding the target language when bilinguals are free to choose in which language to name pictures. We found that the medial prefrontal cortex encoded the chosen language prior to speaking. By contrast, during language use, language control recruited a wider brain network including the left inferior frontal lobe, the basal ganglia, and the angular and inferior parietal gyrus bilaterally. None of these regions were involved in language choice. We argue that the control processes involved in...Continue Reading

Citations

Jan 28, 2021·Brain Structure & Function·Qiming YuanTaomei Guo
Feb 26, 2021·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·Lily TaoQing Cai
May 19, 2021·Psychological Research·Beatriz Bermúdez-MargarettoYury Shtyrov

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