NINAME · Brain dynamics and patterns of activity signature of inner speech during recall and conceptual emergence in bilinguals

Frege, in 1882, puts forward a philosophical account of language as symbols permitting the emergence of conceptual knowledge from individual memories. Since then, the influence of language on the episodic memory system and on the emergence of conceptual knowledge stays an undisclosed thesis. Life experiences are transformed into episodic memory via the hippocampus, the hippocampus in interplay with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex would then elicit the emergence of conceptual knowledge.In this project the hypothesized interdependency of the long term memory network on language processes will be experimentally assessed thanks to language manipulation in fluent bilinguals. It will focus on language specific processes in interplay with the hippocampo-ventro-Medial-Prefrontal Cortex patterns of activity and dynamics. Thus, the project will include two main enterprises: first, the neuroimaging and neurophysiological investigation of the influence of the used language on inner speech during life experience recall. Second, the neuroimaging and neurophysiological investigation of the influence of the used language on the emergence of conceptual knowledge active in the network.The methodological objective of this project is thus to develop an integrated view of the human brain in play in the language-memory interdependency, using fMRI brain responses patterns, and assessing potential contribution of theta rhythms synchrony via the use of MEG.Application side, this project will give the first step in understanding the role of inner speech in long term memory, and the emergence of conceptual knowledge in the network. Applicability side, it will promote an adapted view on the self memory processes of bilinguals essential for clinical practices of psychopathology; moreover, the understanding on the emergence of conceptual knowledge will enhance the adaptation of novel educational plans both for general populations and particularly for bilinguals.