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Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
Published on: June 25, 2019
Specifying the role of the left prefrontal cortex in word selection
S K Riès1, C R Karzmark2, E Navarrete3
1Department of Psychology and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, USA; Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System, Martinez, USA.
Abstract:
Word selection allows us to choose words during language production. This is often viewed as a competitive process wherein a lexical representation is retrieved among semantically-related alternatives. The left prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is thought to help overcome competition for word selection through top-down control. However, whether the LPFC is always necessary for word selection remains unclear. We tested 6 LPFC-injured patients and controls in two picture naming paradigms varying in terms of item repetition. Both paradigms elicited the expected semantic interference effects (SIE), reflecting interference caused by semantically-related representations in word selection. However, LPFC patients as a group showed a larger SIE than controls only in the paradigm involving item repetition. We argue that item repetition increases interference caused by semantically-related alternatives, resulting in increased LPFC-dependent cognitive control demands. The remaining network of brain regions associated with word selection appears to be sufficient when items are not repeated.
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