Morphosyntactic processing in late second-language learners

The goal of the present study was to investigate the electro- physiological correlates of second-language (L2) morphosyn- tactic processing in highly proficient late learners of an L2 with long exposure to the L2 environment. ERPs were col- lected from 22 English–Spanish late learners while they read sentences in which morphosyntactic features of the L2 present or not present in the first language (number and gender agree- ment, respectively) were manipulated at two different sentence positions—within and across phrases. The results for a control group of age-matched native-speaker Spanish participants in- cluded an ERP pattern of LAN-type early negativity followed by P600 effect in response to both agreement violations and for both sentence positions. The late L2 learner results included a similar pattern, consisting of early negativity followed by P600, in the first sentence position (within-phrase agreement viola- tions) but only P600 effects in the second sentence position (across-phrase agreement violation), as well as significant am- plitude and onset latency differences between the gender and the number violation effects in both sentence positions. These results reveal that highly proficient learners can show electro- physiological correlates during L2 processing that are qualita- tively similar to those of native speakers, but the results also indicate the contribution of factors such as age of acquisition and transfer processes from first language to L

The Structure of Phonological Networks Across Multiple Languages

The network characteristics based on the phonological similarities in the lexicons of several languages were examined. These languages differed widely in their history and linguistic structure, but commonalities in the network characteristics were observed. These networks were also found to be different from other networks studied in the literature. The properties of these networks suggest explanations for various aspects of linguistic processing and hint at deeper organization within human language.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Language experience impacts brain activation for spoken and signed language in infancy: Insights from unimodal and bimodal bilinguals

Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that monolingual infants activate a left lateralised fronto-temporal brain network in response to spoken language, which is similar to the network involved in processing spoken and signed language in adulthood. However, it is unclear how brain activation to language is influenced by early experience in infancy. To address this question, we present functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data from 60 hearing infants (4-to-8 months): 19 monolingual infants exposed to English, 20 unimodal bilingual infants exposed to two spoken languages, and 21 bimodal bilingual infants exposed to English and British Sign Language (BSL). Across all infants, spoken language elicited activation in a bilateral brain network including the inferior frontal and posterior temporal areas, while sign language elicited activation in the right temporo-parietal area. A significant difference in brain lateralisation was observed between groups. Activation in the posterior temporal region was not lateralised in monolinguals and bimodal bilinguals, but right lateralised in response to both language modalities in unimodal bilinguals. This suggests that experience of two spoken languages influences brain activation for sign language when experienced for the first time. Multivariate pattern analyses (MVPA) could classify distributed patterns of activation within the left hemisphere for spoken and signed language in monolinguals (proportion correct = 0.68; p = 0.039) but not in unimodal or bimodal bilinguals. These results suggest that bilingual experience in infancy influences brain activation for language, and that unimodal bilingual experience has greater impact on early brain lateralisation than bimodal bilingual experience

Dichotic listening test in Spanish: pairs of disyllabic words

Introduction and objectives. In Spanish dichotic listening tests monosyllabic words or syllables are used. A dichotic listening test is presented with the use of 19 pairs of bisyllabic words, since this type of words is more in line with the syllabic structure of Spanish. Subjects and methods. The test has been applied to a total of 164 psychology students. Two studies were carried out, one exploratory and the other to obtain test-retest reliability. The answers have been obtained with the discrimination between four visual distractors. In the first study, up to two of the four alternatives could be chosen. In the second study, a single response was forced and the test was performed twice with a 15-day time gap. Results. A significant right ear advantage was observed both in the first study (t (39) = –9.57, p <0.0001) and in the second study (t (37) = –11.75, p <0, 0001). Separating the sample between right-handed and left-handed, significant differences were obtained between their means in the first study with respect to the laterality index (t (14) = 2.23, p <0.04). The test-retest correlation was highly significant (r = 0.88, p <0.0001). Conclusions. The present test seems to be a good indicator of laterality and has been implemented in a computer program that allows the time intervals between pairs of stimuli to be modified and the laterality indexes to be obtained automatically. In this way, the test allows its use in a wide range of clinical populations

Phonemic repertoire and similarity within the vocabulary

Contains fulltext : 17006.pdf ( ) (Closed access)Language-specific differences in the size and distribution of the phonemic repertoire can have implications for the task facing listeners in recognising spoken words. A language with more phonemes will allow shorter words and reduced embedding of short words within longer ones, decreasing the potential for spurious lexical competitors to be activated by speech signals. We demonstrate that this is the case via comparative analyses of the vocabularies of English and Spanish. A language which uses suprasegmental as well as segmental contrasts, however, can substantially reduce the extent of spurious embedding

Brain structure is related to speech perception abilities in bilinguals

Morphology of the human brain predicts the speed at which individuals learn to distinguish novel foreign speech sounds after laboratory training. However, little is known about the neuroanatomical basis of individual differences in speech perception when a second language (L2) has been learned in natural environments for extended periods of time. In the present study, two samples of highly proficient bilinguals were selected according to their ability to distinguish between very similar L2 sounds, either isolated (prelexical) or within words (lexical). Structural MRI was acquired and processed to estimate vertex-wise indices of cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (CSA), and the association between cortical morphology and behavioral performance was inspected. Results revealed that performance in the lexical task was negatively associated with the thickness of the left temporal cortex and angular gyrus, as well as with the surface area of the left precuneus. Our findings, consistently with previous fMRI studies, demonstrate that morphology of the reported areas is relevant for word recognition based on phonological information. Further, we discuss the possibility that increased CT and CSA in sound-to-meaning mapping regions, found for poor non-native speech sounds perceivers, would have plastically arisen after extended periods of increased functional activity during L2 exposure