•We used activation likelihood estimation to analyse fMRI studies on bilingual language processing.•Lexico-semantics, grammar and phonology in L1 and L2 were considered.•A shared neural network ...emerged for L1 and L2 with few differences.•Under-investigated issues are identified and future research directions indicated.
Notwithstanding rising interest, a coherent picture of the brain’s representation of two languages has not yet been achieved. In the present meta-analysis we analysed a large number of functional neuroimaging studies focusing on language processing in bilinguals. We used activation likelihood estimation (ALE) to enucleate activation areas involved in bilingual processing and control of different types of linguistic knowledge – lexico-semantics, grammar, phonology – in L1 and L2. Results show that surprisingly, compared to L2, lexico-semantic processing in L1 involves a widespread system of cortico-subcortical regions, especially when L2 is acquired later in life. By contrast, L2 processing recruits regions exceeding the L1 semantic network and relating to executive control processes. Only few regions displayed selective activation for grammar and phonology. Analyses of language switching highlight a functional overlap between domain-general and bilingual language control networks. Collectively, our findings point to a shared neural network for L1 and L2 with few differences depending on the linguistic level. The emerging picture identifies under-investigated issues, offering clear directions for future research.
There is currently no agreement on which factor modulates most effectively and enduringly brain plasticity in bilingual individuals. Grouping heterogeneous linguistic profiles under a dichotomous ...condition (bilingualism versus monolingualism) may obscure critical aspects of language experience underlying neural changes, thus leading to variable and often conflicting findings. In the present study, we overcome these limitations by analyzing the individual and joint contribution of L2 AoA, proficiency and usage – all measured as continuous variables – on the resting-state functional connectivity of the brain networks mediating the specific demands of bilingual language processing: the language network and the executive control network. Our results indicate that bilingual experience – defined as a continuous and multifaceted phenomenon – impacts brain plasticity by modulating the functional connectivity both within and between language and control networks. Each experience-related factor considered played a role in changing the connectivity of these regions. Moreover, the effect of AoA was modulated by proficiency and usage. These findings shed new light on the importance of modeling bilingualism as a gradient measure rather than an all-or-none phenomenon.
In this study, stress diacritics were used to investigate the processing of stress information in lexical decision. We ran two experiments in Italian, a language in which stress position is not ...predictable by rule and only final stress—that is, the less common pattern—is orthographically marked with a diacritic. In Experiment 1, a lexical decision task, two factors were manipulated: the stress pattern of words—antepenultimate (nondominant) and penultimate (dominant)—and the presence/absence of the diacritics, signalling the stress position. Participants were faster to categorise stimuli as words when they bear dominant than nondominant stress. However, the advantage disappeared when the diacritic was used. In Experiment 2, a same-different verification task was used in which participants had to decide if a referent word and a target were same (carota-CAROTA, /ka’rɔta/; tavolo-TAVOLO, /’tavolo/) or different. We compared two conditions requiring a “different” response, in which referent and target with dominant and nondominant stress were congruent (caròta-CAROTA; tàvolo-TAVOLO) or incongruent (càrota-CAROTA; tavòlo-TAVOLO) with the word’s stress. For words with dominant stress, “different” responses were faster in the incongruent condition than the congruent condition. This congruency effect was not observed for words with nondominant stress pattern. Overall, the data suggest that stress information is based on lexical phonology, and the stress dominance effect has a lexical base in word recognition.
Listeners rely on vocal features when guessing others’ sexual orientation. What is less clear is whether speakers modulate their voice to emphasize or to conceal their sexual orientation. We ...hypothesized that gay individuals adapt their voices to the social context, either emphasizing or disguising their sexual orientation. In Study 1 (
n
= 20 speakers,
n
= 383 Italian listeners and
n
= 373 British listeners), using a simulated conversation paradigm, we found that gay speakers modulated their voices depending on the interlocutor, sounding more gay when speaking to a person with whom they have had an easy (vs. difficult or no) coming out. Although straight speakers were always clearly perceived as heterosexual, their voice perception also varied depending on the interlocutor. Study 2 (
n
= 14 speakers and
n
= 309 listeners), comparing the voices of young YouTubers before and after their public coming out, showed a voice modulation as a function of coming out. The voices of gay YouTubers sounded more gay after coming out, whereas those of age-matched straight control male speakers sounded increasingly heterosexual over time. Combining experimental and archival methods, this research suggests that gay speakers modulate their voices flexibly depending on their relation with the interlocutor and as a consequence of their public coming out.
Whilst there has been extensive study of the mechanisms underlying the regulation for pictures, the ability and the mechanisms beyond the regulation of words remains to be clarified. Similarly, the ...effect of strategy when applying a regulatory process is still poorly explored. The present study seeks to elucidate these issues comparing the effect of regulation and of strategy to both neutral and emotional words and pictures.
Thirty young adults applied the strategy of distancing to the emotions elicited by unpleasant and neutral pictures and words while their subjective ratings and ERPs were recorded. At a behavioral level, participants successfully regulated the arousal and the valence of both pictures and words. At a neural level, unpleasant pictures produced an increase in the late positive potential modulated during the regulate condition. Unpleasant linguistic stimuli elicited a posterior negativity as compared to neutral stimuli, but no effect of regulation on ERP was detectable. More importantly, the effect of strategy independently of stimulus type, produced a significant larger Stimulus Preceding Negativity. Dipole reconstruction localized this effect in the middle frontal areas of the brain.
As such, these new psychophysiological findings might help to understand how pictures and words can be regulated by distancing in daily life and clinical contexts, and the neural bases of the effect of strategy for which we suggest an integrative model.
The present study investigates the influence of emotional information on language processing. To this aim, we measured behavioral responses and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) during four ...Italian lexical decision experiments in which we used emotionally intense and neutral pseudowords—i.e., pseudowords derived from changing one letter in a word (e.g.,
cammelto
, derived from
cammello
‘camel’ vs.
copezzolo
, from
capezzolo
‘nipple’)—as stimuli. In Experiment 1 and 2, half of the pseudowords were emotionally intense and half were neutral, and were mixed with neutral words. In Experiment 3, the list composition was manipulated, with ¼ of the pseudowords being derived from emotionally intense words and ¾ derived from neutral words. Experiment 4 was identical to Experiment 1, but ERPs were recorded. Emotionally intense pseudowords were categorized more slowly than neutral pseudowords, with the difference emerging both in the mean and at the leading edge of the response times distribution. Moreover, emotionally intense pseudowords elicited smaller N170 and N400 than neutral pseudowords. These results speak in favor of a fast and multi-level infiltration of the emotional information into the linguistic process of word recognition.
We investigated whether semantic interference occurring during visual word recognition is resolved using domain-general control mechanisms or using more specific mechanisms related to semantic ...processing. We asked participants to perform a lexical decision task with taboo stimuli, which induce semantic interference, as well as a semantic Stroop task and a Simon task, intended as benchmarks of linguistic-semantic and non-linguistic interference, respectively. Using a correlational approach, we investigated potential similarities between effects produced in the three tasks, both at the level of overall means and as a function of response speed (delta-plot analysis). Correlations selectively surfaced between the lexical decision and the semantic Stroop task. These findings suggest that, during visual word recognition, semantic interference is controlled by semantic-specific mechanisms, which intervene to face prepotent but task-irrelevant semantic information interfering with the accomplishment of the task’s goal.
Recent studies have shown that concurrent physical activity enhances learning a completely unfamiliar L2 vocabulary as compared to learning it in a static condition. In this paper we report a study ...whose aim is twofold: to test for possible positive effects of physical activity when L2 learning has already reached some level of proficiency, and to test whether the assumed better performance when engaged in physical activity is limited to the linguistic level probed at training (i.e. L2 vocabulary tested by means of a Word-Picture Verification task), or whether it extends also to the sentence level (which was tested by means of a Sentence Semantic Judgment Task). The results show that Chinese speakers with basic knowledge of English benefited from physical activity while learning a set of new words. Furthermore, their better performance emerged also at the sentential level, as shown by their performance in a Semantic Judgment task. Finally, an interesting temporal asymmetry between the lexical and the sentential level emerges, with the difference between the experimental and control group emerging from the 1st testing session at the lexical level but after several weeks at the sentential level.
Do novel linguistic labels have privileged access to attentional resources compared to non-linguistic labels? This study explores this possibility through two experiments with a training and an ...attentional overlap task. Experiment 1 investigates how novel label and object-only stimuli influence resource allocation and disengagement of visual attention. Experiment 2 tests the impact of linguistic information on visual attention by comparing novel tones and labels. Because disengagement of attention is affected both by the salience of the perceptual stimulus and by the degree of familiarity with the stimulus to be disengaged from, we compared pupil size variations and saccade latency under different test conditions: (a) consistent with (i.e., identical to) the training; (b) inconsistent with the training (i.e., with an altered feature), and (c) deprived of one feature only in Experiment 1. Experiment 1 indicated a general consistency advantage (and deprived disadvantage) driven by linguistic label-object pairs compared to object-only stimuli. Experiment 2 revealed that tone-object pairs led to higher pupil dilation and longer saccade latency than linguistic label-object pairs. Our results suggest that novel linguistic labels preferentially impact the early orienting of attention.
Abstract
Inhibitory control is the capacity to withhold or suppress a thought or action intentionally. The anterior Midcingulate Cortex (aMCC) participates in response inhibition, a proxy measure of ...inhibitory control. Recent research suggests that response inhibition is modulated by individual variability in the aMCC sulcal morphology. However, no study has investigated if this phenomenon is associated with neurofunctional differences during a task. In this study, 42 participants performed an Attention Network Task and a Numerical Stroop task in an MRI scanner. We investigated differences in brain activity and response inhibition efficiency between individuals with symmetric and asymmetric aMCC sulcal patterns. The results showed that aMCC morphological variability is partly associated with inhibitory control, and revealed greater activation in individuals with symmetric patterns during the Stroop task. Our findings provide novel insights into the functional correlates of the relationship between aMCC morphology and executive abilities.
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