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Abstract:
The current study investigated the areas that are involved in
language switching tasks using functional Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (fMRI). In one condition, participants covertly named
single objects in English when cued by the word "say" and in
Spanish when cued by the word "diga" (which is say in Spanish). In
a second condition, participants were shown a picture of an action
(a woman blowing a candle) and told to covertly name in English the
action (blow) when cued by the word "to" and the object (candle)
when cued by the word "the." In both conditions, the cue either
alternated between languages or between actions and objects on
successive pictures or stayed the same during a block of pictures.
Comparison between the switching and non-switching conditions
revealed an increased bilateral activation in frontal areas for
both action/object and language switching relative to the
non-switching conditions. These findings replicate previous studies
in our laboratory which investigated neural activity during
language switching. In addition, activation was found to extend
into the temporal lobe and the inferior frontal lobe for
action/object but not language switching. The results are
consistent with the view that action/object and language switching
are mediated by partially overlapping areas. In addition, our
findings suggest that within-and between-language switching involve
both common and distinct neural circuits.
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