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The right posterior paravermis and the control of language interference

Filippi, R; Richardson, FM; Dick, F; Leech, R; Green, DW; Thomas, MSC; Price, CJ; (2011) The right posterior paravermis and the control of language interference. The Journal of Neuroscience , 31 (29) 10732 - 10740. 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1783-11.2011. Green open access

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Abstract

Auditory and written language in humans' comprehension necessitates attention to the message of interest and suppression of interference from distracting sources. Investigating the brain areas associated with the control of interference is challenging because it is inevitable that activation of the brain regions that control interference co-occurs with activation related to interference per se. To isolate the mechanisms that control verbal interference, we used a combination of structural and functional imaging techniques in Italian and German participants who spoke English as a second language. First, we searched structural MRI images of Italian participants for brain regions in which brain structure correlated with the ability to suppress interference from the unattended dominant language (Italian) while processing heard sentences in their weaker language (English). This revealed an area in the posterior paravermis of the right cerebellum in which gray matter density was higher in individuals who were better at controlling verbal interference. Second, we found functional activation in the same region when our German participants made semantic decisions on written English words in the presence of interference from unrelated words in their dominant language (German). This combination of structural and functional imaging therefore highlights the contribution of the right posterior paravermis to the control of verbal interference. We suggest that the importance of this region for language processing has previously been missed because most fMRI studies limit the field of view to increase sensitivity, with the lower part of the cerebellum being the region most likely to be excluded.

Type: Article
Title: The right posterior paravermis and the control of language interference
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1783-11.2011
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1783-11.2011
Language: English
Additional information: This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that that reuse is restricted to non-commercial purposes, i.e. research or educational use, and the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Voxel-based morphometry, Cognitive control, Bilingual brain, Speech, Simon, Performance, Cerebellum, Perception, Knowledge, Framework
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Imaging Neuroscience
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1322013
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