The dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) are two main regions that
support bilingual language control during language production. Previous studies have suggested that the regions
work together in language control processes. However, how they cooperate with each other during bilingual
language production is far from clear. We addressed this issue by recruiting bimodal bilingual participants whose
two languages could be separated at a neural level. Functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired
from the participants as they performed a dual-language production task and a spoken-production task. Dynamic
causal modelling (DCM) was used to analyse the effective connectivity between the ACC and the DLPFC as well
as the causal relationships among the control regions and language regions. We found that the ACC had positive
effective connectivity to the DLPFC, left precentral gyrus and left superior temporal gyrus, while the DLPFC had
negative effective connectivity to the other three regions. A similar pattern of effective connectivity between the
control regions and language regions was also found in the spoken-production task. These results showed that the
ACC may promote the production of the target language, while the DLPFC has an inhibitory effect in language
production. The findings suggest an antagonistic relationship between the DLPFC and ACC that cooperatively
ensures fluent language production in bilinguals.
图1，DCM模型的构建。A：每对ROI 之间有效连接的四个可能的模式；B：双语任务的四个ROI的全连接模型；C：口语产生任务的三个ROI的全连接模型；D：每条有效连接受到口语条件和手语条件调节的四个可能的模式。biC双向连接，foC前向连接，baC反向连接，noC没有连接；boM连接受两个条件调节，spM口语条件调节，siM手语条件调节，noM不受调节。
Li, S., Li, L., Zou, L., Yan, X., Zhang, J., Yang, M., & Ding, G. (2022). "Antagonistic" cooperation of control regions in bilingual language production: An effective connectivity study. Neuropsychologia, 167, 108165.
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