Brain potential and functional MRI evidence for how to handle two languages with one brain

Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells, Michael Rotte, Hans-Jochen Heinze, Tömme Nösselt and Thomas F. Münte ()
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Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells: Otto von Guericke University, Universitätsplatz 2
Michael Rotte: Klinik für Neurologie 2, Otto von Guericke University
Hans-Jochen Heinze: Klinik für Neurologie 2, Otto von Guericke University
Tömme Nösselt: Klinik für Neurologie 2, Otto von Guericke University
Thomas F. Münte: Otto von Guericke University, Universitätsplatz 2

Nature, 2002, vol. 415, issue 6875, 1026-1029

Abstract: Abstract Bilingual individuals need effective mechanisms to prevent interference from one language while processing material in the other1. Here we show, using event-related brain potentials and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), that words from the non-target language are rejected at an early stage before semantic analysis in bilinguals. Bilingual Spanish/Catalan and monolingual Spanish subjects were instructed to press a button when presented with words in one language, while ignoring words in the other language and pseudowords. The brain potentials of bilingual subjects in response to words of the non-target language were not sensitive to word frequency, indicating that the meaning of non-target words was not accessed in bilinguals. The fMRI activation patterns of bilinguals included a number of areas previously implicated in phonological and pseudoword processing2,3,4,5, suggesting that bilinguals use an indirect phonological access route to the lexicon of the target language to avoid interference6.

Date: 2002
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DOI: 10.1038/4151026a

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