Choosing Our Words: Retrieval and Selection Processes Recruit Shared Neural Substrates in Left Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex

When we speak, we constantly retrieve and select words for production in the face of multiple possible alternatives. Our ability to respond in such underdetermined situations is supported by left ventrolateral prefrontal cortical (VLPFC) regions, but there is active debate about whether these region...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cognitive neuroscience 2011-11, Vol.23 (11), p.3470-3482
Main Authors: Snyder, Hannah R., Banich, Marie T., Munakata, Yuko
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attention
Behavior
Brain
Brain Hemisphere Functions
Brain Mapping
Choice Behavior - physiology
Cognitive Processes
Evidence
Female
Functional Laterality - physiology
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Language Processing
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Memory
Mental Recall - physiology
Neuropsychological Tests
Neurosciences
Photic Stimulation
Prefrontal Cortex - physiology
Semantics
Students
Substrates
Universities
Verbal Learning
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:When we speak, we constantly retrieve and select words for production in the face of multiple possible alternatives. Our ability to respond in such underdetermined situations is supported by left ventrolateral prefrontal cortical (VLPFC) regions, but there is active debate about whether these regions support (1) selection between competing alternatives, (2) controlled retrieval from semantic memory, or (3) selection and controlled retrieval in distinct subregions of VLPFC (selection in mid-VLPFC and controlled retrieval in anterior VLPFC). Each of these theories has been supported by some prior evidence but challenged by other findings, leaving the debate unresolved. We propose that these discrepancies in the previous literature reflect problems in the way that selection and controlled retrieval processes have been operationalized and measured. Using improved measures, we find that shared neural substrates in left VLPFC support both selection and controlled retrieval, with no dissociation between mid and anterior regions. Moreover, selection and retrieval demands interact in left VLPFC, such that selection effects are greatest when retrieval demands are low, consistent with prior behavioral findings. These findings enable a synthesis and reinterpretation of prior evidence and suggest that the ability to respond in underdetermined situations is affected by both selection and retrieval mechanisms for verbal material subserved by left VLPFC, and these processes interact in meaningful ways.
ISSN:0898-929X
1530-8898
DOI:10.1162/jocn_a_00023