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Published: 01 February 2023 The intention to name an object modulates neural responses during object recognition tasks. However, the nature of this modulation is still unclear. We established whether a core operation in language, i.e. lexical access, can be observed even when the task does not require language (size-judgment task), and whether response selection in verbal versus non-verbal semantic tasks relies on similar neuronal processes. We measured and compared neuronal oscillatory activities and behavioral responses to the same set of pictures of meaningful objects, while the type of task participants had to perform (picture-naming versus size-judgment) and the type of stimuli to measure lexical access (cognate versus non-cognate) were manipulated. Despite activation of words was facilitated when the task required explicit word-retrieval (picture-naming task), lexical access occurred even without the intention to name the object (non-verbal size-judgment task). Activation of words and response selection were accompanied by beta (25–35 Hz) desynchronization and theta (3–7 Hz) synchronization, respectively. These effects were observed in both picture-naming and size-judgment tasks, suggesting that words became activated via similar mechanisms, irrespective of whether the task involves language explicitly. This finding has important implications to understand the link between core linguistic operations and performance in verbal and non-verbal semantic tasks. This work was supported by a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to E.B. (Grant reference number: 210924/Z/18/Z). C.D.M received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No: 819093) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (PID2020-113926GB-I00). The authors acknowledge the Basque Government through the BERC 2022-2025 program and the Spanish State Research Agency through BCBL Severo Ochoa excellence accreditation CEX2020-001010-S.

Recent research has highlighted the importance of domain-general processes and brain regions for language and semantic cognition. Yet, this has been mainly observed in executively demanding tasks, leaving open the question of the contribution of domain-general processes to natural language and semantic cognition. Using fMRI, we investigated whether neural processes reflecting context integration and context update – two key aspects of naturalistic language and semantic processing – are domain-specific versus domain-general. Thus, we compared neural responses during integration of contextual information across semantic and non-semantic tasks. Whole-brain results revealed both shared (left posterior-dorsal inferior frontal gyrus, left posterior inferior temporal gyrus, and left dorsal angular gyrus/intraparietal sulcus) and distinct (left anterior-ventral inferior frontal gyrus, left anterior ventral angular gyrus, left posterior middle temporal gyrus for semantic control only) regions involved in context integration and update. Furthermore, data-driven functional connectivity analysis clustered domain-specific versus domain-general brain regions into distinct but interacting functional neural networks. These results provide a first characterization of the neural processes required for context-dependent integration during language processing along the domain-specificity dimension, and at the same time, they bring new insights on the role of left posterior lateral temporal cortex and left angular gyrus for semantic cognition.

A long history of neuropsychology and neuroimaging has implicated the angular gyrus (AG) with a myriad of cognitive functions. We investigated the functional engagement of AG by three forms of memory: 1) episodic/autobiographical memory 2) object semantic-memory, and 3) event-semantic processing using the previously under-examined naturalistic task of propositional speech production. We conducted an ALE meta-analysis of imaging studies of propositional speech, followed by an fMRI study in which we conducted direct cross-domain comparisons. The results from the meta-analysis suggest that the AG is only engaged as part of the propositional speech network when the task carries an autobiographical component. This conclusion was strongly supported by the results from the fMRI study. The key fMRI findings were: 1) AG was positively engaged during autobiographical memory retrieval. 2) The AG was strongly deactivated for definitions of object semantics and non-propositional speech. 3) The level of AG activation increased with the degree to which the event descriptions relied on input from the episodic memory system. 4) Critically, the AG showed a very different pattern to that of known semantic representation regions (the anterior temporal lobe; ATL) - whilst AG activation increased with the autobiographical nature of the task, the ATL was equally responsive to all conditions. These results provide clear evidence that the AG is not acting as a semantic hub. In contrast, the AG activation profile directly mirrored that found in the wider autobiographical retrieval network. We propose that information stored elsewhere in the episodic system is temporally buffered online in the AG during autobiographical retrieval/memory construction.

Published:17 December 2021 The left ventral occipito-temporal cortex (vOTC) supports extraction and processing of visual features. However, it has remained unclear whether left vOTC-based functional connectivity (FC) differs according to task-relevant representations (e.g., lexical, visual) and control demands imposed by the task, even when similar visual-semantic processing is required for object identification. Here, neural responses to the same set of pictures of meaningful objects were measured, while the type of task that participants had to perform (picture naming versus size-judgment task), and the level of cognitive control required by the picture naming task (high versus low interference contexts) were manipulated. Explicit retrieval of lexical representations in the picture naming task facilitated activation of lexical/phonological representations, modulating FC between left vOTC and dorsal anterior-cingulate-cortex/pre-supplementary-motor-area. This effect was not observed in the size-judgment task, which did not require explicit word-retrieval of object names. Furthermore, retrieving the very same lexical/phonological representation in the high versus low interference contexts during picture naming increased FC between left vOTC and left caudate. These findings support the proposal that vOTC functional specialization emerges from interactions with task-relevant brain regions. Francesca M. Branzi was supported by a H2020 European Research Council grant (GAP: 670428-BRAIN2 MIND_NEUROCOMP). Clara D. Martin was supported by grants from the H2020 European Research Council [ERC Consolidator Grant ERC-2018-COG-819093], the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [PID2020-113926GB-I00], the Basque Government [PIBA18-29]. Pedro M. Paz-Alonso was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [RYC-2014-15440; PGC2018-093408-B-I00], Neuroscience projects from the Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno, and the Basque Government [PIBA-2021-1-0003]. BCBL acknowledges support by the Basque Government through the BERC 2018-2021 program and by the Spanish State Research Agency through BCBL Severo Ochoa excellence accreditation SEV-2015-0490. The authors also acknowledge the Medical Research intramural funding (MC_UU_00005/18).

A fundamental cognitive operation involved in speech production is word retrieval from the mental lexicon, which in monolinguals is supported by dissociable ventro-lateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) mechanisms associated with proactive and reactive control. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study established whether in multilinguals word retrieval is supported by the same prefrontal mechanisms, and whether proactive modulation consists in suppression of the non-target lexicon. Healthy multilingual volunteers participated in a task that required them to name pictures alternatively in their dominant and less-dominant language. Two crucial variables were manipulated: the cue-target interval (CTI) to either engage (long CTI) or prevent proactive control processes (short CTI), and the cognate status of the pictures to-be-named (non-cognates versus cognates) to capture the presence of selective pre-activation of the target language. Results support the two-process account of vlPFC and indicate that multilinguals engage in proactive control to prepare the target language. This proactive modulation, enacted by anterior vlPFC, is achieved by boosting the activation of lexical representations of the target language. Control processes supported by mid-vlPFC and left inferior parietal lobe together, are similarly engaged in pre-and post-word retrieval, possibly exerted on phonological representations to reduce cross-language interference.Significance StatementWord retrieval in monolingual speech production is enacted by left ventro-lateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) supporting controlled access to conceptual representations (proactive control), and left mid-vlPFC supporting post-retrieval lexical selection (reactive control). In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study we demonstrate that multilingual word retrieval is supported by similar prefrontal mechanisms. However, differently from monolinguals, multilingual speakers retrieve words by applying proactive control on lexical representations to reduce cross-language interference. Alternatively to what it has been proposed by one of the most influential models, here we show that this proactive modulation is achieved by boosting the activation of lexical representations of the target language.

The role of the left angular gyrus (Ag) in semantic processing remains unclear. In this study, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to test the hypothesis that the left Ag supports the information buffering processes necessary for context-dependent semantic integration (narrative reading task). We applied online TMS to the left Ag to disrupt the buffering processes while female and male human participants integrated information between two paragraphs of text presented sequentially (i.e., context and target conditions). We assessed the effect of TMS on the left Ag by recording reading times for target conditions during the reading task and by asking participants to retrieve contextual information given the target condition as cue in a successive memory task. TMS applied over the left Ag during the reading task impaired the retrieval of contextual information in the memory task without affecting reading times. These results suggest that the Ag supports information buffering and context formation. This study provides the first evidence of a causal role of the left Ag in language tasks that require context-dependent semantic integration.Significance statementThe present study offers novel insights into the processes that are associated with the left angular gyrus (Ag) activation during context-dependent naturalistic language processing. We used TMS while human participants read written narratives to interfere with online language integration. We measured how TMS over the left Ag was affecting reading times and retrieval of integrated narrative representations. We were able to show that the left Ag is causally involved in information buffering and context formation.

During picture naming, the ease with which humans generate words is dependent upon the context in which they are named. For instances, naming previously presented items results in facilitation. Instead, naming a picture semantically related to previous items displays persistent interference effects (i.e., cumulative semantic interference, CSI). The neural correlates of CSI are still unclear and it is a matter of debate whether semantic control, or cognitive control more in general, is necessary for the resolution of CSI. We carried out an event-related fMRI experiment to assess the neural underpinnings of the CSI effect and the involvement and nature of semantic control. Both left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and the left caudate nucleus (LCN) showed a linear increase of BOLD response positively associated with the consecutive number of presentations of semantically related pictures independently of task-load. The generalized psychophysiological interaction analysis showed that LIFG demonstrated a quantitative neural connectivity difference with the left supramarginal and angular gyri for increases of task-load and with the fusiform gyri for linear CSI increases. Furthermore, seed-to-voxel functional connectivity showed that LIFG activity coupled with different regions involved in cognitive control and lexicosemantic processing when semantic interference was elicited to a minimum or maximum degree. Our results are consistent with the lexical-competitive nature of the CSI effect, and we provide novel evidence that semantic control lies upon a more general cognitive control network (i.e., LIFG and LCN) responsible for resolving interference between competing semantically related items through connectivity with different brain areas in order to guarantee the correct response.

The bilingual population nowadays represents a global majority. Hence, the need of elaborating comprehensive theories of lexical access reflecting this reality is becoming increasingly relevant. This chapter presents a critical overview of the most prominent psycholinguistic models of bilingual language production and it tackles different theoretical issues that are currently controversial in the field. The first one concerns whether bilingual lexical access is competitive. Does competition occur between nodes in all of a speaker’s languages, or only between nodes in the target language? A second issue concerns the nature of the mechanisms applied during lexical access (i.e. is language selection resolved through domain-general or language-specific mechanisms?). If bilingual lexical access is competitive and language-non-specific, do the current theories account for the data or do we need to update them? This chapter tries to answer these questions by providing the most recent evidence on mechanisms of bilingual language production.

Bilingual speakers are suggested to use control processes to avoid linguistic interference from the unintended language. It is debated whether these bilingual language control (BLC) processes are an instantiation of the more domain-general executive control (EC) processes. Previous studies inconsistently report correlations between measures of linguistic and non-linguistic control in bilinguals. In the present study, we investigate the extent to which there is cross-talk between these two domains of control for two switch costs, namely the n-1 shift cost and the n-2 repetition cost. Also, we address an important problem, namely the reliability of the measures used to investigate cross-talk. If the reliability of a measure is low, then these measures are ill-suited to test cross-talk between domains through correlations. We asked participants to perform both a linguistic- and non-linguistic switching task at two sessions about a week apart. The results show a dissociation between the two types of switch costs. Regarding test–retest reliability, we found a stronger reliability for the n-1 shift cost compared to the n-2 repetition cost within both domains as measured by correlations across sessions. This suggests the n-1 shift cost is more suitable to explore cross-talk of BLC and EC. Next, we do find cross-talk for the n-1 shift cost as demonstrated by a significant cross-domain correlation. This suggests that there are at least some shared processes in the linguistic and non-linguistic task. The research leading to these results has received funding from the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) with grant 446-14-006 and from the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO) with the Juan de la Cierva grant (IJCI-2016-28564) awarded to KT. This work was also supported by grants from the Spanish government (PSI2014-52181-P and PSI2017-87784-R), the Catalan government (SGR 2009-1521 and 2017 SGR 268), the La Marató de TV3 Foundation (373/C/2014), and the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework (FP7/2007–2013 Cooperation Grant Agreement 613465-AThEME). And last, MC was supported by the postdoctoral Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2013-14013) and FB was supported by the postdoctoral Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship (658341).

In one task-switching experiment, we compared bilinguals and monolinguals to explore the reliability of the bilingualism effect on the n-2 repetition cost. In a second taskswitching experiment, we tested another group of bilinguals and monolinguals and measured both the n-1 shift cost and the n-2 repetition cost to test the hypothesis that bilingualism should confer a general greater efficiency of the executive control functioning. According to this hypothesis, we expected a reduced n-1 shift cost and an enhanced n-2 repetition cost for bilinguals compared to monolinguals. However, we did not observe such results. Our findings suggest that previous results cannot be replicated and that the n-2 repetition cost is another index that shows no reliable bilingualism effect. Finally, we observed a negative correlation between the two switch costs among bilinguals only. This finding may suggest that the two groups employ different strategies to cope with interference in task-switching paradigms. We are grateful to Dr. Kenneth Paap and Dr. Mireia Hernández for their useful comments on the previous versions of this manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Government (PSI2014-54500, PSI2008-01191, PSI2011-23033, PSI2014-53427-P, Consolider Ingenio 2010 CSD2007-00012), the Catalan Government (Consolidat SGR 2009-1521 and SGR 2014-1210), by one grant from the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework (FP7/2007-2013 Cooperation grant agreement 613465-AThEME), by one grant from Fundación Séneca (19267/PI/14) and by the Severo Ochoa program grant SEV-2015-049. Francesca M. Branzi was supported by a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Government (FPU-2009-2013) and by a postdoctoral fellowship from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 658341. Marco Calabria was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Government (Ramón y Cajal Fellowship).

The aim of the present study is two-fold. First, we investigate age-related changes to bilingual language control (bLC) mechanisms across lifespan. Second, we explore the relation between bLC mechanisms and those of the domain-general executive (EC) system by looking at age effects on these two systems. To do so, we compare the performances of the three age groups of bilinguals (young, middle-aged and elderly) in a language switching task to those of non-linguistic switching task. We found an age-related change in the non-linguistic switch cost but not in the language switch cost. Moreover, we did not find any correlation between the magnitudes of the switch costs. Taken together these results indicate that bLC is not affected by age as the EC system is, and interestingly, we add new evidence that the bLC mechanisms are not fully subsidiary to those of the domain-general EC system.

How does the bilingual brain distinguish and control which language to use? A large body of research has been dedicated to answering this question by mainly using the language switching paradigm that taps into different language control mechanisms. This research has been fruitful in revealing both the time course and the brain areas involved in bilingual language control. In this chapter, we review this research and derive two main conclusions. First, the cognitive and neural mechanisms involved in bilingual language control seem to be influenced by various sociolinguistic factors, including language proficiency. Second, “sustained” and “transient” components of control are differently involved in the control of the two languages because they recruit different brain networks. This observation may suggest that different qualitative processes are applied to dominant and nondominant languages to ensure successful speech production in bilinguals.

Available online 1 April 2016 We explored the overlap between bilingual language control (bLC) and domain-general executive control (EC) by focusing on inhibitory control processes. We tested 62 bilinguals in linguistic and non-linguistic switching tasks for two types of costs, such as the n−1 shift cost and the n−2 repetition cost. In order to explore the involvement of inhibitory control in bLC and EC, we assessed the pattern of switch costs in the two tasks and then we correlated them between tasks. Results showed reduced n − 2 repetition costs as compared to n − 1 shift costs in the linguistic task only, suggesting that small amount of inhibition were deployed when switching between languages. Importantly, neither the n − 1 shift costs nor the n − 2 repetition costs were correlated between tasks. These results, supported by additional evidence fromthe ex-Gaussian analysis, suggest that inhibitory control is differently involved in bLC and in EC. This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Government (PSI2014-54500, PSI2008-01191, PSI2011-23033, PSI2011-23340, Consolider Ingenio 2010 CSD2007-00012), the Catalan Government (Consolidat SGR 2009-1521and SGR 2014-1210) and by one grant from the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework (FP7/2007-2013 Cooperation grant agreement 613465-AThEME). This research received partial financial assistance as a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence SEV-2015-0490. FrancescaM. Branziwas supported by a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Government (FPU-2009-2013) and by a postdoctoral fellowship fromthe European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 658341. Marco Calabria was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Government (Ramón y Cajal Fellowship).

International audience; The present study investigated whether lexical processes that occur when we narrie objects can also be observed when an interaction partner is naming objects. We compared the behavioral and electrophysiological responses of participants performing a conditional go/no-go picture naming task in two different conditions: individually and jointly with a confederate participant. To obtain an index of lexical processing, we manipulated lexical frequency, so that half of the pictures had corresponding names of high-frequency and the remaining half had names of low-frequency. Color cues determined whether participants should respond, whether their task-partner should respond, or whether nobody should respond. Behavioral and ERP results showed that participants engaged in lexical processing when it was their turn to respond. Crucially, ERP results on no-go trials revealed that participants also engaged in lexical processing when it was their partner's turn to act. In addition, ERP results showed increased response inhibition selectively when it was the partner's turn to act. These findings provide evidence for the claim that listeners generate predictions about speakers' utterances by relying on their own action production system. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We explored the temporal course of bilingual language control after-effects to shed light on the scope of language control (local vs. global) and on the way in which language control is implemented (L1 inhibition or L2 over-activation). High-proficient bilinguals named objects across three blocks, first in their L1, then in their L2, and then again in their L1 (and conversely) while event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Behaviorally we found only the L1 as being hindered by previous naming in the L2. In the ERPs we did not observe inhibitory effects in the N2 component time-window. However, the P2 component showed more positive-going deflections when the previous language slowed down naming latencies of the successive language. The P2 mean amplitude predicted naming latencies whereas the N2 did not. We conclude that in high-proficient bilinguals the P2 component is the marker of language control mechanisms other than inhibition, which are applied globally.

The role of changes of mind and multiple choices has recently received increased attention in the study of perceptual/ndecision-making. Previously, these extensions to standard two-alternative tasks have been studied separately. Here we/nexplored how changes of mind depend on the number of choice-alternatives. To this end, we tested 14 human subjects on/na 2- and 4-alternative direction-discrimination task. Changes of mind in the participants’ movement trajectories could be/nobserved for two and for four choice alternatives. With fewer alternatives, participants responded faster and more/naccurately. The frequency of changes of mind, however, did not significantly differ for the different numbers of choice/nalternatives. Nevertheless, mind-changing improved the participants’ final performance, particularly for intermediate/ndifficulty levels, in both experimental conditions. Moreover, the mean reaction times of individual participants were/nnegatively correlated with their overall tendency to make changes of mind. We further reproduced these findings with a/nmulti-alternative attractor model for decision-making, while a simple race model could not account for the experimental/ndata. Our experiment, combined with the theoretical models allowed us to shed light on: (1) the differences in choice/nbehavior between two and four alternatives, (2) the differences between the data of our human subjects and previous/nmonkey data, (3) individual differences between participants, and (4) the inhibitory interaction between neural/nrepresentations of choice alternatives. This work was supported by the “CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010” Programme in the “Brainglot” project (Bilingualism and Cognitive Neuroscience) CSD2007-00012. FMB was supported by a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Government (FPU 2009-2013). GD was further supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science in the project “Communication and Information Processing Between Cortical Circuits: Oscillations and Plasticity” SAF2010-16085. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Published online: 18 January 2018 Language comprehension often involves the generation of predictions. It has been hypothesized that such prediction-for-comprehension entails actual language production. Recent studies provided evidence that the production system is recruited during language comprehension, but the link between production and prediction during comprehension remains hypothetical. Here, we tested this hypothesis by comparing prediction during sentence comprehension (primary task) in participants having the production system either available or not (non-verbal versus verbal secondary task). In the primary task, sentences containing an expected or unexpected target noun-phrase were presented during electroencephalography recording. Prediction, measured as the magnitude of the N400 effect elicited by the article (expected versus unexpected), was hindered only when the production system was taxed during sentence context reading. The present study provides the first direct evidence that the availability of the speech production system is necessary for generating lexical prediction during sentence comprehension. Furthermore, these important results provide an explanation for the recruitment of language production during comprehension. This work was supported by the State Agency for Investigation (AEI), the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (PSI2014-54500; SEV-2015-490); and the Basque Government (PI_2015_1_25). FMB was supported by a postdoctoral Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship (658341). MB was supported by the ICORE grant No 51/11 and by an Israel Science Foundation (ISF) grant # 673/17.

Reading a book, understanding the news reports or any other behaviour involving the processing of meaningful stimuli requires the semantic system to have two main features: being active during an extended period of time and flexibly adapting the internal representation according to the changing environment. Despite being key features of many everyday tasks, formation and updating of the semantic “gestalt” are still poorly understood. In this fMRI study we used naturalistic stimuli and task manipulations to identify the neural network that forms and updates conceptual gestalts during time-extended integration of meaningful stimuli. Univariate and multivariate techniques allowed us to draw a distinction between networks that are crucial for the formation of a semantic gestalt (meaning integration) and those that instead are important for linking incoming cues about the current context (e.g., time and space cues) into a schema representation. Specifically, we revealed that time-extended formation of the conceptual gestalt was reflected in the neuro-computations of the anterior temporal lobe accompanied by multi-demand areas and hippocampus, with a key role of brain structures in the right hemisphere. This “semantic gestalt network” was strongly recruited when an update of the current semantic representation was required during narrative processing. A distinct fronto-parietal network, instead, was recruited for context integration, independently from the meaning associations between words (semantic coherence). Finally, in contrast with accounts positing that the default mode network (DMN) may have a crucial role in semantic cognition, our findings revealed that DMN activity was sensitive to task difficulty, but not to semantic integration. The implications of these findings for neurocognitive models of semantic cognition and the literature on narrative processing are discussed., Highlights • fMRI revealed areas and networks for semantic integration during narrative reading. • ATL has a key role in the formation of the conceptual gestalt. • IFG, pMTG and dAG support the update of the conceptual gestalt. • Left AG (mid-PGp) has a key role in context integration.