title: Language control in the bilingual brain.
abstract: How does the bilingual brain distinguish and control which language is in use? Previous functional imaging experiments have not been able to answer this question because proficient bilinguals activate the same brain regions irrespective of the language being tested. Here, we reveal that neuronal responses within the left caudate are sensitive to changes in the language or the meaning of words. By demonstrating this effect in populations of German-English and Japanese-English bilinguals, we suggest that the left caudate plays a universal role in monitoring and controlling the language in use.
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Crinion
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grogan
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hanakawa
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Noppeney
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Devlin
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aso
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Urayama
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fukuyama
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stockton
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Usui
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Green
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Price
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019303:Multilingualism; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D012660:Semantics