Language affects patterns of brain activation associated with perceptual decision.

@article{citeulike:2478756, abstract = {Well over half a century ago, Benjamin Lee Whorf [Carroll JB (1956) Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)] proposed that language affects perception and thought and is used to segment nature, a hypothesis that has since been tested by linguistic and behavioral studies. Although clear Whorfian effects have been found, it has not yet been demonstrated that language influences brain activity associated with perception and/or immediate postperceptual processes (referred hereafter as "perceptual decision"). Here, by using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that brain regions mediating language processes participate in neural networks activated by perceptual decision. When subjects performed a perceptual discrimination task on easy-to-name and hard-to-name colored squares, largely overlapping cortical regions were identified, which included areas of the occipital cortex critical for color vision and regions in the bilateral frontal gyrus. Crucially, however, in comparison with hard-to-name colored squares, perceptual discrimination of easy-to-name colors evoked stronger activation in the left posterior superior temporal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule, two regions responsible for word-finding processes, as demonstrated by a localizer experiment that uses an explicit color patch naming task. This finding suggests that the language-processing areas of the brain are directly involved in visual perceptual decision, thus providing neuroimaging support for the Whorf hypothesis.}, address = {Department of Linguistics.}, author = {Tan, Li Hai H. and Chan, Alice H D H. and Kay, Paul and Khong, Pek-Lan L. and Yip, Lawrance K C K. and Luke, Kang-Kwong K. }, citeulike-article-id = {2478756}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.0800055105}, issn = {1091-6490}, journal = {Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A}, keywords = {linguistic-relativity}, month = {March}, posted-at = {2008-03-11 19:50:40}, priority = {2}, title = {Language affects patterns of brain activation associated with perceptual decision.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0800055105}, year = {2008} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2478756 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2478756 TI - Language affects patterns of brain activation associated with perceptual decision. JF - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A AD - Department of Linguistics. SN - 1091-6490 N2 - Well over half a century ago, Benjamin Lee Whorf [Carroll JB (1956) Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)] proposed that language affects perception and thought and is used to segment nature, a hypothesis that has since been tested by linguistic and behavioral studies. Although clear Whorfian effects have been found, it has not yet been demonstrated that language influences brain activity associated with perception and/or immediate postperceptual processes (referred hereafter as "perceptual decision"). Here, by using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that brain regions mediating language processes participate in neural networks activated by perceptual decision. When subjects performed a perceptual discrimination task on easy-to-name and hard-to-name colored squares, largely overlapping cortical regions were identified, which included areas of the occipital cortex critical for color vision and regions in the bilateral frontal gyrus. Crucially, however, in comparison with hard-to-name colored squares, perceptual discrimination of easy-to-name colors evoked stronger activation in the left posterior superior temporal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule, two regions responsible for word-finding processes, as demonstrated by a localizer experiment that uses an explicit color patch naming task. This finding suggests that the language-processing areas of the brain are directly involved in visual perceptual decision, thus providing neuroimaging support for the Whorf hypothesis. KW - linguistic-relativity AU - Tan, Li Hai AU - Chan, Alice H D AU - Kay, Paul AU - Khong, Pek-Lan AU - Yip, Lawrance K C AU - Luke, Kang-Kwong PY - 2008/03/03/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0800055105 ER -