Comparisons between backward and forward translation (BT, FT) have long illuminated the organization of bilingual memory, with neuroscientific evidence indicating that FT would involve greater linguistic and attentional demands. However, no study has directly assessed the functional interaction between relevant mechanisms. Against this background, we conducted the first fMRI investigation of functional connectivity (FC) differences between BT and FT. In addition to yielding lower behavioral outcomes, FT was characterized by increased FC between a core semantic hub (the left anterior temporal lobe, ATL) and key nodes of attentional and vigilance networks (left inferior frontal, left orbitofrontal, and bilateral parietal clusters). Instead, distinct FC patterns for BT emerged only between the left ATL and the right thalamus, a region implicated in automatic relaying of sensory information to cortical regions. Therefore, FT seems to involve enhanced coupling between semantic and attentional mechanisms, suggesting that asymmetries in cross-language processing reflect dynamic interactions between linguistic and domain-general systems.

前后翻译（BT，FT）之间的比较长期以来一直阐明了双语记忆的组织，而神经科学证据表明，FT将涉及更大的语言和注意力需求。但是，尚无研究直接评估功能相互作用相关机制之间。在此背景下，我们进行了首次功能性磁共振成像研究，研究了BT和FT之间的功能连接（FC）差异。除了产生较低的行为结果外，FT的特征还在于核心语义中心（左前颞叶，ATL）与注意力和警觉网络的关键节点（左下额叶，左眶额叶和双侧顶叶簇）之间的FC增加。取而代之的是，仅在左ATL和右丘脑之间出现了BT的不同FC模式，该区域与将感觉信息自动中继到皮质区域有关。因此，FT似乎涉及语义和注意机制之间的增强耦合，这表明跨语言处理中的不对称反映了语言系统与领域通用系统之间的动态交互。