Executive control in language processing

During communication, speakers and listeners need the mechanisms of executive control to organize thoughts and actions along internal goals. Speakers may use executive functions to select the right word over competing alternatives to refer to the concept in mind. Listeners may use executive function...

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Published inNeuroscience and biobehavioral reviews Vol. 33; no. 8; pp. 1168 - 1177
Main Authors Ye, Zheng, Zhou, Xiaolin
Format Journal Article Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2009
Elsevier
Subjects
Behavioral psychophysiology
Bilingual processing
Biological and medical sciences
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
Comprehension - physiology
Concept Formation
Conflict (Psychology)
Executive control
Frontal cortex
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Inhibition (Psychology)
Language
Mental Processes - physiology
Neural Pathways - physiology
Parietal cortex
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Sentence comprehension
Word production
Word production
Frontal cortex
Bilingual processing
Sentence comprehension
Executive control
Parietal cortex
Verbal comprehension
Executive function
Word
Central nervous system
Review
Verbal production
Encephalon
Language
Bilingualism
Sentence
Cognitive control
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Summary:During communication, speakers and listeners need the mechanisms of executive control to organize thoughts and actions along internal goals. Speakers may use executive functions to select the right word over competing alternatives to refer to the concept in mind. Listeners may use executive functions to coordinate the outputs of multiple linguistic processes to reach a coherent interpretation of what others say. Bilinguals may use executive functions to control which language is to use or to switch from one language to another. The control mechanisms recruited in language processing may be similar to those recruited in perception and attention, supported by a network of frontal, parietal and sub-cortical brain structures. Here we review existing evidences regarding the involvement of domain-general executive control in language processing. We will explain how executive functions are employed to control interference in comprehension and production, within and across languages.
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ISSN:0149-7634
1873-7528
DOI:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2009.03.003