Title
Choosing our words: Retrieval and selection processes recruit shared neural substrates in left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex
Abstract
When we speak, we constantly retrieve and select words for production in the face of multiple possible alternatives. Our ability to respond in such underdetermined situations is supported by left ventrolateral prefrontal cortical (VLPFC) regions, but there is active debate about whether these regions support (1) selection between competing alternatives, (2) controlled retrieval from semantic memory, or (3) selection and controlled retrieval in distinct subregions of VLPFC (selection in mid-VLPFC and controlled retrieval in anterior VLPFC). Each of these theories has been supported by some prior evidence but challenged by other findings, leaving the debate unresolved. We propose that these discrepancies in the previous literature reflect problems in the way that selection and controlled retrieval processes have been operationalized and measured. Using improved measures, we find that shared neural substrates in left VLPFC support both selection and controlled retrieval, with no dissociation between mid and anterior regions. Moreover, selection and retrieval demands interact in left VLPFC, such that selection effects are greatest when retrieval demands are low, consistent with prior behavioral findings. These findings enable a synthesis and reinterpretation of prior evidence and suggest that the ability to respond in underdetermined situations is affected by both selection and retrieval mechanisms for verbal material subserved by left VLPFC, and these processes interact in meaningful ways.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1162/jocn_a_00023
Cognitive Neuroscience, Journal of
Keywords
Field
DocType
semantics,selection effect,semantic memory,cognitive processes,memory,attention,magnetic resonance imaging,evidence,brain mapping
Brain mapping,Semantic memory,Prefrontal cortex,Left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex,Cognitive psychology,Psychology,Cognition,Semantics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
23
11
0898-929X
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
6
0.61
12
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Hannah R. Snyder181.37
Marie T Banich2799.48
Yuko Munakata3102.46