Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China.
Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2020 Sep;41(13):3720-3736. doi: 10.1002/hbm.25044. Epub 2020 May 23.
The neural mechanisms underlying one's own language production and the comprehension of language produced by other speakers in daily communication remain elusive. Here, we assessed how self-language production and other-language comprehension interact within a language switching context using event-related functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (er-fMRI) in 32 unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals. We assessed within-modality language interference during language production and comprehension as well as cross-modality interference when switching from production to comprehension and vice versa. Results revealed that the overall effect of production (across switch and repeat trials) was larger in the cross-modality than within-modality condition in a series of attentional control areas, namely the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and left precuneus. Furthermore, the left precuneus was recruited more strongly in switch trials compared to repeat trials (i.e., switching costs) in within-production conditions but not in the cross-modality condition. These findings suggest that switching from production to comprehension recruits cognitive control areas to successfully implement switches between modalities. However, cross-language interference (in the form of language switching costs) mainly stems from the self-language production system.
自身语言产生的神经机制以及在日常交流中理解他人语言的神经机制仍然难以捉摸。在这里，我们使用事件相关功能磁共振成像（er-fMRI）在 32 名不平衡的中英双语者中评估了语言切换背景下自我语言产生和他人语言理解之间的相互作用。我们评估了语言产生和理解过程中的同模态语言干扰，以及从产生切换到理解和反之亦然的跨模态干扰。结果表明，在一系列注意力控制区域中，跨模态的产生（跨开关和重复试验）的总体效应大于同模态条件，这些区域包括左背外侧前额叶皮层、前扣带皮层和左楔前叶。此外，与同模态条件相比，左楔前叶在产生过程中的开关试验（即切换成本）比重复试验中被更强地招募，但在跨模态条件中则不然。这些发现表明，从产生切换到理解会招募认知控制区域，以成功地在模态之间进行切换。然而，跨语言干扰（以语言切换成本的形式）主要源于自我语言产生系统。
