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Cognitive control traits and states modulate lexical competition during word production
Poster Session D, Saturday, October 26, 10:30 am - 12:00 pm, Great Hall 3 and 4
Sifan Zhang1, Keyi Kang1, Haoyun Zhang1; 1University of Macau
Word production involves monitoring multiple lexical items and selecting the target item (e.g., sofa, couch; Nozari et al., 2016). Previous studies have demonstrated that cognitive control traits (i.e., long-term ability) and states (i.e., short-term status) might facilitate the ability to resolve lexical competition during language comprehension (Hsu et al., 2017; Ness et al., 2023). The current study investigates the influence of cognitive control in competition resolution during word production, using behavioral and fMRI techniques. Neuropsychological testing was administered prior to the MRI session, during which AX-CPT, Flanker and Simon tasks were used to evaluate the participants’ cognitive control traits (Braver et al., 2009; Simon & Wolf, 1963). An overall Z score across the three tasks was calculated. During the MRI session, participants performed a picture naming task. The lexical competition was manipulated via name agreement. Compared to higher name agreement items (e.g., a picture of a keyboard only has one proper name), lower name agreement items (e.g., a picture of a wrapped box has multiple alternative names, box, gift, or present) would elicit stronger lexical competition. Cognitive control states were manipulated by a Stroop trial preceding the naming trial. Specifically, conflict Stroop trials (“GREEN” printed in blue) would elicit a higher focused control state compared to non-conflict Stroop trials (“BLUE” printed in blue). A 2 (Control trait, higher vs. lower) × 2 (Control state, higher vs. lower) × 2 (Name agreement, higher vs. lower) mixed design was formed. Behaviorally, pictures with higher name agreement were responded better (i.e., faster response time RT and higher accuracy ACC) compared to pictures with lower name agreement, indicating the interference effect from lexical competition. Neurally, the activation level of the whole brain of participants under the lower name agreement condition was significantly higher than that under the higher name agreement condition (manifested in Inferior Frontal Gyrus, IFG). Additionally, compared to the non-conflict Stroop trials, the conflict Stroop trials (i.e., more focused control states) facilitated the subsequent picture naming performance, reflected by faster RT, yet not reflected in whole-brain activation. In addition to the effects from cognitive control states, participants who exhibited superior control traits (indicated by a lower merged Z-score from three cognitive tasks) demonstrated higher naming accuracy, but also longer reaction times. In addition to the whole brain analyses, we are currently conducting the dynamic causal modeling analysis (DCM, Friston et al., 2019) to estimate the time-varying connections between the regions involved in cognitive progress and word production, under different conditions. Overall, the preliminary results indicated that cognitive control traits and states significantly modulated the lexical competition during word production.
Topic Areas: Language Production,