The translating brain: cerebral activation patterns during simultaneous interpreting

Brain activation was measured in professional interpreters during simultane ous interpreting (SI) vs. repetition (shadowing) of auditorily presented te xt by positron emission tomography (PET). SI into the native language (Finn ish) elicited left frontal activation increases. SI into the non-native lan guage (English) elicited much more extensive left-sided fronto-temporal act ivation increases. Our results indicate that SI activates predominantly lef t-hemispheric structures (particularly the left dorsolateral frontal cortex ) previously related to lexical search, semantic processing and verbal work ing memory. Brain activation patterns were clearly modulated by direction o f translation, with more extensive activation during translation into the n on-native language which is often considered to a be more demanding task. ( C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.