The translating brain: cerebral activation patterns during simultaneous interpreting

Brain activation was measured in professional interpreters during simultaneous interpreting (SI) vs. repetition (shadowing) of auditorily presented text by positron emission tomography (PET). SI into the native language (Finnish) elicited left frontal activation increases. SI into the non-native language (English) elicited much more extensive left-sided fronto-temporal activation increases. Our results indicate that SI activates predominantly left-hemispheric structures (particularly the left dorsolateral frontal cortex) previously related to lexical search, semantic processing and verbal working memory. Brain activation patterns were clearly modulated by direction of translation, with more extensive activation during translation into the non-native language which is often considered to a be more demanding task.