language control in the bilingual brain
DESCRIPTION
Language Control in the Bilingual Brain. Crinion et al. (2006) Ema Salja. Background. Bilinguals can voluntarily control which language is used Distinguish language heard/read Which language speech is to be produced in Inhibition of non-selected language - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
BackgroundBackground Bilinguals can voluntarily control which
language is used Distinguish language heard/read Which language speech is to be produced in Inhibition of non-selected language
Proficient bilinguals activate same brain regions regardless of which language presented or produced (Abutalebi, & Perani, 2005).
Neural circuits for different languages are overlapping/ interconnected but don’t indicate how brain controls language in use
Question & Question & HypothesisHypothesis
What brain areas are responsible for language control?
DV: brain activation (fMRI & PET)
IV: Language of target Target & prime
semantics Target & prime language
Hypothesis? They didn’t
really have one…
MethodsMethods Subjects (German-English & Japanese-English
bilinguals)visually shown pairs of words (i.e. trout-SALMON) in sequence Language Pairs semantically similar/different Target and prime were in same/different language
Ignore first word (prime) & make decision based on meaning of second word (target) Time between prime & target optimized for priming,
but not long enough to predict target (250 ms) Task presented while subjects being scanned (fMRI
& PET)
ResultsResults No significant effect of
target language on accuracy
Some variance in visual cortex activation
Semantic priming in left ventral anterior temporal lobe is language-independent
Language-dependent semantic priming only in left caudate (LC) Reduced activation
when semantically similar prime & target in same language
DiscussionDiscussion Suggest that LC plays a role in
sensing change in language OR word semantics
LC seems to function for language control Neuropsychological study on
particular trilingual patient with white matter lesions around LC Retained comprehension in all 3 Involuntarily switched between
languages during production tasks
Limitations & Next Limitations & Next StepStep
Limitations Characters/word varied
between languages Sample size/bilingual
group (~ 10-15) Tested only German-
English & Japanese-English bilinguals
Next Step Determine adjacent &
connecting pathways Test other bilingual
groups Check effect of varying
proficiencies (one language more dominant then other)
Final NoteFinal Note
Strengths Interesting Topic Tested bilinguals
from completely separate linguistic families
Equivalent linguistic proficiencies
Weaknesses Difficult to read No clear question,
hypothesis or variables
Not enough information or detail regarding subjects & procedures
ReferencesReferences
Abutalebi, J., & Perani, D. (2005). the neural basis of first and second language processing. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 15, 202-206.
Aso, T., Crinion, J., Fukuyama, H., Green, D. W., Grogan, A., Hanakawa, T.,…Urayama, S. (2006). Language control in the bilingual brain. Science, 312, 1537-1540. doi: 10.1126/science.1127761.