Broca Pars Triangularis Constitutes a "Hub" of the Language-Control Network during Simultaneous Language Translation

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psycholinguistics
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Bilingualism and multilingualism significantly influence cognitive functions like attention and memory.
• Neuroimaging studies reveal specific brain regions involved in cognitive control for multilingual individuals.
• Group analyses in neuroimaging can obscure important inter-individual differences in language processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate commonalities and inter-individual variability in language control mechanisms.
• To identify specific brain regions involved in simultaneous language translation.
• To explore the role of pars triangularis in the multilingual brain.

Main Methods:

• Single-subject fMRI analyses were conducted on five professional simultaneous interpreters.
• Participants performed overt backward (L2 to L1) and forward (L1 to L2) translation tasks.
• Sentence repetition tasks were used as a control condition.

Main Results:

• Pars triangularis showed consistent activation across all participants during backward translation.
• Other brain regions within the cognitive control network exhibited significant inter-individual variability during both translation directions.
• Language control mechanisms display both shared and unique neural underpinnings.

Conclusions:

• Pars triangularis is proposed to play a critical role in the language-control network.
• This region acts as a fundamental processing entity supporting simultaneous language translation.
• Understanding inter-individual variability is essential for a comprehensive view of multilingual brain function.