LANGUAGE CONTROL PROCESSES: DOMAIN GENERAL OR DOMAIN-SPECIFIC?

There remain major doubts about the nature and domain specificity of inhibitory control processes, both within and between cognitive domains. The present fMRI study assessed the neural substrates associated with inhibitory control processes within in the language domain, by comparing phonological versus semantic control processes. Thirty-four elderly participants (59.6 ± 6.1 years old) performed phonological similarity and semantic similarity judgment tasks involving the inhibition of highly or weakly interfering stimuli. A direct contrast between the two task conditions revealed two distinct networks : a temporo-parietal network for phonological control and a temporo-frontal network for semantic control. Common activity was observed in a large dorsal attention network including bilaterally the insula. Moreover, multivariate voxel pattern analysis showed reliable decoding of neural patterns associated with high versus weak inhibitory control in both tasks. These results provide novel evidence for a dissociation between phonological and semantic language control processes.