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Dive into the research topics where Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells is active.

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Featured researches published by Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells.


Nature | 2002

Brain potential and functional MRI evidence for how to handle two languages with one brain

Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells; Michael Rotte; Hans-Jochen Heinze; Tömme Nösselt; Thomas F. Münte

Bilingual individuals need effective mechanisms to prevent interference from one language while processing material in the other. Here we show, using event-related brain potentials and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), that words from the non-target language are rejected at an early stage before semantic analysis in bilinguals. Bilingual Spanish/Catalan and monolingual Spanish subjects were instructed to press a button when presented with words in one language, while ignoring words in the other language and pseudowords. The brain potentials of bilingual subjects in response to words of the non-target language were not sensitive to word frequency, indicating that the meaning of non-target words was not accessed in bilinguals. The fMRI activation patterns of bilinguals included a number of areas previously implicated in phonological and pseudoword processing, suggesting that bilinguals use an indirect phonological access route to the lexicon of the target language to avoid interference.


Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience | 2005

Second Language Interferes with Word Production in Fluent Bilinguals: Brain Potential and Functional Imaging Evidence

Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells; Arie van der Lugt; Michael Rotte; Belinda Britti; Hans-Jochen Heinze; Thomas F. Münte

Bilingual individuals need effective mechanisms to prevent interference between their languages. Using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we present evidence for interference of phonological information from the nontarget language in GermanSpanish bilinguals. A tacit picture-naming task was used in which bilinguals and monolinguals had to make speeded responses based on the first letter of the pictures name in the target language. In one condition, subjects were required to respond when the name began with a vowel and to withhold a response if it started with a consonant. Stimuli had been selected such that in half of the trials, the names in both languages necessitated the same response, whereas in the other half, responses were different for the two languages. For the bilinguals, the language in which the stimuli had to be named was changed after each block. Bilinguals showed phonological interference compared with monolingual performance, which was evident in their performance, ERPs, and fMRI patterns. Nonlanguage-specific brain areas such as the left middle prefrontal cortex were found to be crucial for the control of interference.


Neuropsychologia | 2008

Human oscillatory activity associated to reward processing in a gambling task

Josep Marco-Pallarés; David Cucurell; Toni Cunillera; Rafael García; Antonio Andrés-Pueyo; Thomas F. Münte; Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells

Previous event-related brain potential (ERP) studies have identified a medial frontal negativity (MFN) in response to negative feedback or monetary losses. In contrast, no EEG correlates have been identified related to the processing of monetary gains or positive feedback. This result is puzzling considering the large number of brain regions involved in the processing of rewards. In the present study we used a gambling task to investigate this issue with trial-by-trial wavelet-based time-frequency analysis of the electroencephalographic signal recorded non-invasively in healthy humans. Using this analysis a mediofrontal oscillatory component in the beta range was identified which was associated to monetary gains. In addition, standard time-domain ERP analysis showed an MFN for losses that was associated with an increase in theta power in the time-frequency analysis. We propose that the reward-related beta oscillatory activity signifies the functional coupling of distributed brain regions involved in reward processing.


Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | 2013

Word learning is mediated by the left arcuate fasciculus

Diana López-Barroso; Marco Catani; Pablo Ripollés; Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells; Ruth de Diego-Balaguer

Human language requires constant learning of new words, leading to the acquisition of an average vocabulary of more than 30,000 words in adult life. The ability to learn new words is highly variable and may rely on the integration between auditory and motor information. Here, we combined diffusion imaging tractography and functional MRI to study whether the strength of anatomical and functional connectivity between auditory and motor language networks is associated with word learning ability. Our results showed that performance in word learning correlates with microstructural properties and strength of functional connectivity of the direct connections between Broca’s and Wernicke’s territories in the left hemisphere. This study suggests that our ability to learn new words relies on an efficient and fast communication between temporal and frontal areas. The absence of these connections in other animals may explain the unique ability of learning words in humans.


Clinical Neurophysiology | 2005

Brain potentials related to self-generated and external information used for performance monitoring

Sandra Verena Müller; Jürn Möller; Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells; Thomas F. Münte

OBJECTIVE Humans need to supervise and adjust their own behavior by means of an error detection and correction system as well as by using externally available information. The purpose of the present study was to compare the electrophysiological effects related to self-generated internal and to external (feedback) information used for performance monitoring. METHODS Fourteen young normal subjects learned to associate each of several line-drawings with either a left-hand or right-hand response. In the experiment proper multi-channel ERPs were obtained time-locked to (a) the line-drawings, (b) the button-press, and (c) subsequent feedback stimuli. Feedback was either affirmative, negative, or equivocal. Event-related potentials were quantified and statistically evaluated using standard methodology. RESULTS Response-locked ERPs showed a typical error-related negativity (ERN) for erroneous responses. ERPs to negative and equivocal feedback stimuli contained a negativity with a more posterior distribution than that of the ERN, which occurred earlier and had a higher peak amplitude in the equivocal condition. Dipole modeling suggests that this feedback-related negativity is generated by medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortex areas. CONCLUSIONS Different brain systems support the use of internal and external information necessary for performance monitoring and modification. SIGNIFICANCE The flexible use of internal and external information for performance control is a core executive function. The delineation of the corresponding brain correlates will further our understanding of executive dysfunction in neurological disorders.


Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience | 2008

Neural mechanisms underlying adaptive actions after slips

Josep Marco-Pallarés; Estela Camara; Thomas F. Münte; Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells

An increase in cognitive control has been systematically observed in responses produced immediately after the commission of an error. Such responses show a delay in reaction time (post-error slowing) and an increase in accuracy. To characterize the neurophysiological mechanism involved in the adaptation of cognitive control, we examined oscillatory electrical brain activity by electroencephalogram and its corresponding neural network by event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging in three experiments. We identified a new oscillatory theta-beta component related to the degree of post-error slowing in the correct responses following an erroneous trial. Additionally, we found that the activity of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the right inferior frontal cortex, and the right superior frontal cortex was correlated with the degree of caution shown in the trial following the commission of an error. Given the overlap between this brain network and the regions activated by the need to inhibit motor responses in a stop-signal manipulation, we conclude that the increase in cognitive control observed after the commission of an error is implemented through the participation of an inhibitory mechanism.


The Journal of Neuroscience | 2007

The Impact of Catechol-O-Methyltransferase and Dopamine D4 Receptor Genotypes on Neurophysiological Markers of Performance Monitoring

Ulrike M. Krämer; Toni Cunillera; Estela Camara; Josep Marco-Pallarés; David Cucurell; Wido Nager; Peter Bauer; Rebecca Schüle; Ludger Schöls; Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells; Thomas F. Münte

Dynamic adaptations of ones behavior by means of performance monitoring are a central function of the human executive system, that underlies considerable interindividual variation. Converging evidence from electrophysiological and neuroimaging studies in both animals and humans hints at the importance of the dopaminergic system for the regulation of performance monitoring. Here, we studied the impact of two polymorphisms affecting dopaminergic functioning in the prefrontal cortex [catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val108/158Met and dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-521] on neurophysiological correlates of performance monitoring. We applied a modified version of a standard flanker task with an embedded stop-signal task to tap into the different functions involved, particularly error monitoring, conflict detection and inhibitory processes. Participants homozygous for the DRD4 T allele produced an increased error-related negativity after both choice errors and failed inhibitions compared with C-homozygotes. This was associated with pronounced compensatory behavior reflected in higher post-error slowing. No group differences were seen in the incompatibility N2, suggesting distinct effects of the DRD4 polymorphism on error monitoring processes. Additionally, participants homozygous for the COMT Val allele, with a thereby diminished prefrontal dopaminergic level, revealed increased prefrontal processing related to inhibitory functions, reflected in the enhanced stop-signal-related components N2 and P3a. The results extend previous findings from mainly behavioral and neuroimaging data on the relationship between dopaminergic genes and executive functions and present possible underlying mechanisms for the previously suggested association between these dopaminergic polymorphisms and psychiatric disorders as schizophrenia or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.


Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B | 2009

Neurophysiological mechanisms involved in language learning in adults

Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells; Toni Cunillera; Anna Mestres-Missé; Ruth de Diego-Balaguer

Little is known about the brain mechanisms involved in word learning during infancy and in second language acquisition and about the way these new words become stable representations that sustain language processing. In several studies we have adopted the human simulation perspective, studying the effects of brain-lesions and combining different neuroimaging techniques such as event-related potentials and functional magnetic resonance imaging in order to examine the language learning (LL) process. In the present article, we review this evidence focusing on how different brain signatures relate to (i) the extraction of words from speech, (ii) the discovery of their embedded grammatical structure, and (iii) how meaning derived from verbal contexts can inform us about the cognitive mechanisms underlying the learning process. We compile these findings and frame them into an integrative neurophysiological model that tries to delineate the major neural networks that might be involved in the initial stages of LL. Finally, we propose that LL simulations can help us to understand natural language processing and how the recovery from language disorders in infants and adults can be accomplished.


Neuropsychologia | 2002

Electrophysiological estimates of the time course of semantic and phonological encoding during listening and naming.

Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells; Bernadette M. Schmitt; Marta Kutas; Thomas F. Münte

Current psycholinguistic models suggest that we know what we want to say before we decide how we are going to say it: in other words, for speaking, word meaning is activated prior to information about syntax and phonology. Listening likely involves the reverse order of processes: phonological processing before meaning activation. We examined the relative time courses of phonological and semantic processing during language production and comprehension using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Participants viewed a series of pictures (with the instruction to covertly name the depicted item), or heard a series of words, and made dual choice Go/noGo decisions based on each items conceptual (whether the item was an animal or an object) and phonological features (whether the items German name started with a vowel or a consonant). During picture naming, the N200 component (related to response inhibition) indicated that conceptual processing preceded phonological processing by about 170ms. During auditory word processing, on the other hand, the brain activity related to these two aspects of comprehension indicated some temporal overlap with the N200 to phonological processing preceding that to semantic processing by only about 85ms. In sum, the data are compatible with current psycholinguistic models of speech production and comprehension and argue for serial or widely spaced cascaded processing during production but more parallel processing of information during comprehension.


Frontiers in Psychology | 2011

Is there a relationship between language switching and executive functions in bilingualism? Introducing a within-group analysis approach

Anna Soveri; Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells; Matti Laine

Several studies have suggested a bilingual advantage in executive functions, presumably due to bilinguals’ massive practice with language switching that requires executive resources, but the results are still somewhat controversial. Previous studies are also plagued by the inherent limitations of a natural groups design where the participant groups are bound to differ in many ways in addition to the variable used to classify them. In an attempt to introduce a complementary analysis approach, we employed multiple regression to study whether the performance of 30- to 75-year-old Finnish–Swedish bilinguals (N = 38) on tasks measuring different executive functions (inhibition, updating, and set shifting) could be predicted by the frequency of language switches in everyday life (as measured by a language switching questionnaire), L2 age of acquisition, or by the self-estimated degree of use of both languages in everyday life. Most consistent effects were found for the set shifting task where a higher rate of everyday language switches was related to a smaller mixing cost in errors. Mixing cost is thought to reflect top-down management of competing task sets, thus resembling the bilingual situation where decisions of which language to use has to be made in each conversation. These findings provide additional support to the idea that some executive functions in bilinguals are affected by a lifelong experience in language switching and, perhaps even more importantly, suggest a complementary approach to the study of this issue.

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Josep Marco-Pallarés

Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg

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Matti Laine

Åbo Akademi University

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Jordi Riba

Autonomous University of Barcelona

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