Abstract
Accumulating evidence suggests that some degree of attentional control is required to regulate and monitor processes underlying speaking. Although progress has been made in delineating the neural substrates of the core language processes involved in speaking, substrates associated with regulatory and monitoring processes have remained relatively underspecified. We report the results of an fMRI study examining the neural substrates related to performance in three attention-demanding tasks varying in the amount of linguistic processing: vocal picture naming while ignoring distractors (picture-word interference, PWI); vocal color naming while ignoring distractors (Stroop); and manual object discrimination while ignoring spatial position (Simon task). All three tasks had congruent and incongruent stimuli, while PWI and Stroop also had neutral stimuli. Analyses focusing on common activation across tasks identified a portion of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) that was active in incongruent trials for all three tasks, suggesting that this region subserves a domain-general attentional control function. In the language tasks, this area showed increased activity for incongruent relative to congruent stimuli, consistent with the involvement of domain-general mechanisms of attentional control in word production. The two language tasks also showed activity in anterior-superior temporal gyrus (STG). Activity increased for neutral PWI stimuli (picture and word did not share the same semantic category) relative to incongruent (categorically related) and congruent stimuli. This finding is consistent with the involvement of language-specific areas in word production, possibly related to retrieval of lexical-semantic information from memory. The current results thus suggest that in addition to engaging language-specific areas for core linguistic processes, speaking also engages the ACC, a region that is likely implementing domain-general attentional control.
Highlights
Accumulating evidence suggests that speakers need to engage attentional control for certain language processes (e.g., Ferreira and Pashler, 2002; Roelofs and Hagoort, 2002; Roelofs, 2003, 2008; Roelofs and Piai, 2011; Piai and Roelofs, 2013)
By examining the activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) that is common to all three tasks, we aimed to identify a domain-general portion of the cingulate cortex that is active with incongruent trials
The effects were estimated with a subjectspecific fixed-effects model. (We modeled the response time (RT) as durations for each of the trials, but given that the results were quite similar to the ones reported below and we did not have the RTs for all participants, these results are not reported here)
Summary
Accumulating evidence suggests that speakers need to engage attentional control for certain language processes (e.g., Ferreira and Pashler, 2002; Roelofs and Hagoort, 2002; Roelofs, 2003, 2008; Roelofs and Piai, 2011; Piai and Roelofs, 2013). Attentional control refers to the regulatory and monitoring processes that ensure that our actions are in accordance with our goals, especially in the face of distraction (e.g., Posner and Petersen, 1990; Roelofs, 2003). When planning a word or a multiword utterance, speakers need to prevent interference from concurrent information in the environment, such as speech from an interlocutor or visual input from objects surrounding the referent. Attentional control includes self-monitoring, through which speakers assess whether planning and performance are consistent with intent (e.g., Levelt et al, 1999; Hartsuiker and Kolk, 2001; Roelofs, 2004; Christoffels et al, 2007; van de Ven et al, 2009). Levelt (1989) suggests that “Message construction is controlled processing, and so is monitoring” Levelt (1989) suggests that “Message construction is controlled processing, and so is monitoring” (p. 21)
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