Pub Date : 2025-09-24DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105641
Mireia Hernández , Anna Gasa-Roqué , Alba Gómez-Andres , Ruth Lau , Inmaculada Rico , Montserrat Juncadella , Àngels Camins , Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells , Andreu Gabarrós
Language representation has been attributed to the perisylvian areas of the left hemisphere, with a more widely distributed network in multilingual populations. However, multilingual evidence has long obviated the involvement of regions outside classical perisylvian areas, such as the supplementary motor area (SMA). We aimed to provide novel evidence on the SMA’s role in language localization using electrical stimulation mapping (ESM) during awake brain surgery. We conducted a case-series study of 4 bilingual or multilingual patients with an expansive brain lesion near the SMA who underwent an ESM. Our results evidenced that the stimulation of the left-SMA induced language difficulties during a verb generation task, with a higher proportion of language-specific sites in the pre-SMA region. Moreover, we reported specific language sites for multiple acquired languages. Overall, our study highlighted the SMA as a language-eloquent area, likely linked to lexical decisions, while also being sensitive to different—but not necessarily all—languages of a patient.
{"title":"Language-specific regions in the supplementary motor area: Evidence from verb generation during electrical stimulation mapping","authors":"Mireia Hernández , Anna Gasa-Roqué , Alba Gómez-Andres , Ruth Lau , Inmaculada Rico , Montserrat Juncadella , Àngels Camins , Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells , Andreu Gabarrós","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105641","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105641","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Language representation has been attributed to the perisylvian areas of the left hemisphere, with a more widely distributed network in multilingual populations. However, multilingual evidence has long obviated the involvement of regions outside classical perisylvian areas, such as the supplementary motor area (SMA). We aimed to provide novel evidence on the SMA’s role in language localization using electrical stimulation mapping (ESM) during awake brain surgery. We conducted a case-series study of 4 bilingual or multilingual patients with an expansive brain lesion near the SMA who underwent an ESM. Our results evidenced that the stimulation of the left-SMA induced language difficulties during a verb generation task, with a higher proportion of language-specific sites in the pre-SMA region. Moreover, we reported specific language sites for multiple acquired languages. Overall, our study highlighted the SMA as a language-eloquent area, likely linked to lexical decisions, while also being sensitive to different—but not necessarily all—languages of a patient.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"271 ","pages":"Article 105641"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145121002","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-20DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105643
Yuxi Zhou, Qingfang Zhang
Production and comprehension research has shown that words acquired earlier and encountered more frequently are responded faster and more accurately, reflecting the effects of age of acquisition (AoA) and word frequency (WF). Both effects are interpreted as the quality of lexical-semantic/phonological representations and the structure of lexical network. However, it remains unclear how the processing advantages associated with earlier acquisition and frequent occurrence develop in the vocabulary learning. To address these issues, this study investigated whether and how acquisition order and exposure frequency of to-be-learnt pseudowords, mirroring AoA and WF of real words, affect Chinese spoken word production over four consecutive days. ERP recordings on Day4 further explored the time courses of acquisition order and exposure frequency effects for newly-acquired pseudowords. Results illustrated an overall benefit of earlier acquisition regardless of the degree of consolidation, while higher exposure frequency merely modulated early formation of episodic representations. Moreover, the acquisition order effect was localized to more positive waveforms occurring around 148–578 ms after pictures onset. No interaction was observed between acquisition order and exposure frequency at either behavioral or electrophysiological levels. Our findings therefore have implications for the dominant role of acquisition order over exposure frequency in shaping the development of lexical network in adults.
{"title":"Exploring whether and when acquisition order interacts with exposure frequency during lexical learning: Evidence from behavioral and electrophysiological findings","authors":"Yuxi Zhou, Qingfang Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105643","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105643","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Production and comprehension research has shown that words acquired earlier and encountered more frequently are responded faster and more accurately, reflecting the effects of age of acquisition (AoA) and word frequency (WF). Both effects are interpreted as the quality of lexical-semantic/phonological representations and the structure of lexical network. However, it remains unclear how the processing advantages associated with earlier acquisition and frequent occurrence develop in the vocabulary learning. To address these issues, this study investigated whether and how acquisition order and exposure frequency of to-be-learnt pseudowords, mirroring AoA and WF of real words, affect Chinese spoken word production over four consecutive days. ERP recordings on Day4 further explored the time courses of acquisition order and exposure frequency effects for newly-acquired pseudowords. Results illustrated an overall benefit of earlier acquisition regardless of the degree of consolidation, while higher exposure frequency merely modulated early formation of episodic representations. Moreover, the acquisition order effect was localized to more positive waveforms occurring around 148–578 ms after pictures onset. No interaction was observed between acquisition order and exposure frequency at either behavioral or electrophysiological levels. Our findings therefore have implications for the dominant role of acquisition order over exposure frequency in shaping the development of lexical network in adults.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"271 ","pages":"Article 105643"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145107304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-20DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105639
Suesan MacRae , Heath E. Matheson
Theories of embodied and grounded cognition suggest that the reuse of sensorimotor information supports word comprehension. In the current study, we induced body ownership illusions of the hands and feet (and related control conditions) while participants categorized verbs related to the hands and feet. Using representational similarity analysis (RSA) we demonstrate that sensorimotor information is decodable during verb categorization at around 600 ms in control conditions and around 400 ms for hand related verbs specifically. Further, the pattern of sensorimotor activity elicited during verb categorization is altered when participants experience body ownership illusions; decoding is earlier when sensorimotor information was pre-activated with illusions. Overall, our results suggest that preactivating sensorimotor information alters the neural dynamics supporting verb comprehension, providing evidence for a neurocognitive process that reuses sensorimotor information. These results contribute to the development of models for embodied and grounded cognition and provide insight into the dynamics of neural reuse.
{"title":"Juggling with rubber hands, leaping with rubber feet: Sensorimotor reuse during verb comprehension","authors":"Suesan MacRae , Heath E. Matheson","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105639","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105639","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Theories of embodied and grounded cognition suggest that the reuse of sensorimotor information supports word comprehension. In the current study, we induced body ownership illusions of the hands and feet (and related control conditions) while participants categorized verbs related to the hands and feet. Using representational similarity analysis (RSA) we demonstrate that sensorimotor information is decodable during verb categorization at around 600 ms in control conditions and around 400 ms for hand related verbs specifically. Further, the pattern of sensorimotor activity elicited during verb categorization is altered when participants experience body ownership illusions; decoding is earlier when sensorimotor information was pre-activated with illusions. Overall, our results suggest that preactivating sensorimotor information alters the neural dynamics supporting verb comprehension, providing evidence for a neurocognitive process that reuses sensorimotor information. These results contribute to the development of models for embodied and grounded cognition and provide insight into the dynamics of neural reuse.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"271 ","pages":"Article 105639"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145107303","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Experience with language starts prenatally, as the intrauterine environment allows speech prosody to get through. Martinez-Alvarez and colleagues (2023) demonstrated that newborns detect utterance-level prosodic violations in the language they heard prenatally, French. It remains unknown, however, whether this discrimination ability requires prenatal experience with a given language or whether newborns have an early sensitivity to the shapes of prosodic contours that extends beyond prenatal experience. To this purpose, we tested infants exposed prenatally to Italian with the French stimuli of Martinez-Alvarez et al. (2023), and we measured their brain responses with fNIRS. We found that Italian-exposed newborns discriminate between standard and deviant prosodic contours in French, activating right hemispheric areas specialized for the processing of prosody in adults. However, the time course and the localization of the effect were different from those found in French newborns. This suggests that an early sensitivity to prosodic contours may be modulated by prenatal experience at birth.
{"title":"Do newborns detect prosodic violations in an unfamiliar language at birth?","authors":"Caterina Marino , Jessica Gemignani , Marcela Peña , Anna Martinez-Alvarez , Luca Bonadies , Eugenio Baraldi , Judit Gervain","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105640","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105640","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Experience with language starts prenatally, as the intrauterine environment allows speech prosody to get through. <span><span>Martinez-Alvarez and colleagues (2023)</span></span> demonstrated that newborns detect utterance-level prosodic violations in the language they heard prenatally, French. It remains unknown, however, whether this discrimination ability requires prenatal experience with a given language or whether newborns have an early sensitivity to the shapes of prosodic contours that extends beyond prenatal experience. To this purpose, we tested infants exposed prenatally to Italian with the French stimuli of <span><span>Martinez-Alvarez et al. (2023)</span></span>, and we measured their brain responses with fNIRS. We found that Italian-exposed newborns discriminate between standard and deviant prosodic contours in French, activating right hemispheric areas specialized for the processing of prosody in adults. However, the time course and the localization of the effect were different from those found in French newborns. This suggests that an early sensitivity to prosodic contours may be modulated by prenatal experience at birth.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"271 ","pages":"Article 105640"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145050579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-10DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105638
Cristal Giorio, Janet G. van Hell
Research shows that nonnative accents differing from a listener’s own can impede comprehension, as described by the Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit (ISIB). While extensively studied in nonnative contexts, native regional varieties have been less frequently studied, with mixed findings. This study examined native listeners’ real-time sentence processing of geographically distant Spanish varieties. Mexican Spanish speakers listened to accents that matched (Mexican) or mismatched (Peninsular Spain, Puerto Rico) their own, along with nonnative English-accented Spanish. Behavioral results showed high comprehension across all varieties. ERP findings revealed semantic violation N400 effects for the Mexican and familiar Peninsular Spain but not for the less-familiar Puerto Rican accent. An N400 and late negativity appeared for nonnative English-accented Spanish. Results indicate that less-familiar native language varieties challenge, while familiar accents facilitate, lexico-semantic access during real-time sentence processing. Findings support a generalized intra-language processing benefit for regional varieties beyond matched speech, further refining the ISIB hypothesis.
{"title":"Semantic processing of regional varieties in native Spanish listeners: the role of accent familiarity","authors":"Cristal Giorio, Janet G. van Hell","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105638","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105638","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research shows that nonnative accents differing from a listener’s own can impede comprehension, as described by the Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit (ISIB). While extensively studied in nonnative contexts, native regional varieties have been less frequently studied, with mixed findings. This study examined native listeners’ real-time sentence processing of geographically distant Spanish varieties. Mexican Spanish speakers listened to accents that matched (Mexican) or mismatched (Peninsular Spain, Puerto Rico) their own, along with nonnative English-accented Spanish. Behavioral results showed high comprehension across all varieties. ERP findings revealed semantic violation N400 effects for the Mexican and familiar Peninsular Spain but not for the less-familiar Puerto Rican accent. An N400 and late negativity appeared for nonnative English-accented Spanish. Results indicate that less-familiar native language varieties challenge, while familiar accents facilitate, lexico-semantic access during real-time sentence processing. Findings support a generalized intra-language processing benefit for regional varieties beyond matched speech, further refining the ISIB hypothesis.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"271 ","pages":"Article 105638"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145027839","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Phonological alternations are common in speech, but the neurocognitive mechanisms for their encoding during word production remain unclear. Mandarin Tone 3 sandhi is an example of phonological alternation, whereby the Tone 3 (T3), a low-dipping tone, changes to a Tone 2 (T2)-like rising tone when followed by another T3. Previous research indicates that both the underlying tonal category and the surface tonal variant are activated during T3 sandhi word production, but the neural substrates of these sub-processes remain unclear. Using Mandarin T3 sandhi as a case study, we employed functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to better understand the neural bases of phonological alternations. Participants completed a phonologically-primed picture naming task, with different tonal relationships between monosyllabic primes and T3 sandhi words manipulated. Behaviorally, we replicated the facilitatory effects of T3 and T2 primes on the naming latencies of T3 sandhi words, confirming the activation of both underlying and surface tonal information. Compared to control primes, the fNIRS data revealed reduced activation in left temporal and bilateral frontal regions during T3 sandhi word production following T3 primes, indicating facilitation in retrieving the underlying tonal category and/or the wordform of T3 sandhi words, which may proceed to the downstream articulatory planning and execution of the context-specific tonal contour. Conversely, increased activation in left temporal regions but decreased activation in frontal regions was found during T3 sandhi word production following T2 primes, implying higher lexical-phonological competition in the wordform retrieval but facilitation in articulatory planning. Our findings offer implications for understanding the neural encoding of phonological alternations.
{"title":"Neural substrates for the encoding of the contextual tonal alternation: An fNIRS study of Mandarin third-tone sandhi in word production","authors":"Xiaocong Chen , Tai Yuan , Yiya Chen , Fumo Huang , Caicai Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105636","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105636","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Phonological alternations are common in speech, but the neurocognitive mechanisms for their encoding during word production remain unclear. Mandarin Tone 3 sandhi is an example of phonological alternation, whereby the Tone 3 (T3), a low-dipping tone, changes to a Tone 2 (T2)-like rising tone when followed by another T3. Previous research indicates that both the underlying tonal category and the surface tonal variant are activated during T3 sandhi word production, but the neural substrates of these sub-processes remain unclear. Using Mandarin T3 sandhi as a case study, we employed functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to better understand the neural bases of phonological alternations. Participants completed a phonologically-primed picture naming task, with different tonal relationships between monosyllabic primes and T3 sandhi words manipulated. Behaviorally, we replicated the facilitatory effects of T3 and T2 primes on the naming latencies of T3 sandhi words, confirming the activation of both underlying and surface tonal information. Compared to control primes, the fNIRS data revealed reduced activation in left temporal and bilateral frontal regions during T3 sandhi word production following T3 primes, indicating facilitation in retrieving the underlying tonal category and/or the wordform of T3 sandhi words, which may proceed to the downstream articulatory planning and execution of the context-specific tonal contour. Conversely, increased activation in left temporal regions but decreased activation in frontal regions was found during T3 sandhi word production following T2 primes, implying higher lexical-phonological competition in the wordform retrieval but facilitation in articulatory planning. Our findings offer implications for understanding the neural encoding of phonological alternations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"270 ","pages":"Article 105636"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144988430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-30DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105637
Gaelle E. Doucet , Jordanna A. Kruse , Nichole M. Eden , Lisa Goffman , Karla K. McGregor
Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is a common neurodevelopmental condition characterized by not only significant difficulty with language learning, comprehension, and expression but also with executive, procedural and/or motor functions. The understanding of the brain abnormalities in DLD remains largely unclear and functional MRI (fMRI) studies have largely focused on the language network. Using resting-state fMRI, we investigated whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) in 22 children with DLD and 23 with typical language development (TD), aged 7-to-13-years. Using a non-parametric network-based statistics approach, we found that children with DLD had an extensive network of lower FC across the whole brain, compared to the TD children. In particular, the sensorimotor (SM), cognitive control (CC) and default-mode (DM) networks included the largest amounts of altered FC. In detail, FC links within the DM network and between the SM and DM networks, and between the SM and CC networks were the most altered. No FC was found to be significantly higher in the children with DLD than in their peers with TD. To our knowledge, this is the first investigation of resting-state FC in children with DLD, showing widespread functional brain abnormalities that are not limited to the language network, but rather involve networks supporting other cognitive and motor functions. Such extensive functional abnormalities offer a potential explanation for the other cognitive and motor impairments characterizing DLD.
发展性语言障碍（Developmental Language Disorder， DLD）是一种常见的神经发育疾病，其特征不仅是语言学习、理解和表达方面的显著困难，而且还包括执行、程序和/或运动功能方面的困难。对DLD中大脑异常的理解仍不清楚，功能MRI （fMRI）研究主要集中在语言网络上。我们使用静息状态功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究了22名7- 13岁的DLD儿童和23名典型语言发育（TD）儿童的全脑功能连接（FC）。使用基于非参数网络的统计方法，我们发现与TD儿童相比，DLD儿童在整个大脑中具有广泛的下FC网络。特别是，感觉运动（SM）、认知控制（CC）和默认模式（DM）网络包括最大数量的FC改变。其中，DM网络内部、SM与DM网络之间、SM与CC网络之间的FC链路变化最大。没有发现DLD患儿的FC明显高于TD患儿。据我们所知，这是对DLD儿童静息状态FC的首次调查，显示了广泛的功能性大脑异常，不仅限于语言网络，而且涉及支持其他认知和运动功能的网络。这种广泛的功能异常为DLD的其他认知和运动障碍提供了潜在的解释。
{"title":"Initial evidence of altered functional network connectivity in children with developmental language disorder","authors":"Gaelle E. Doucet , Jordanna A. Kruse , Nichole M. Eden , Lisa Goffman , Karla K. McGregor","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105637","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105637","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is a common neurodevelopmental condition characterized by not only significant difficulty with language learning, comprehension, and expression but also with executive, procedural and/or motor functions. The understanding of the brain abnormalities in DLD remains largely unclear and functional MRI (fMRI) studies have largely focused on the language network. Using resting-state fMRI, we investigated whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) in 22 children with DLD and 23 with typical language development (TD), aged 7-to-13-years. Using a non-parametric network-based statistics approach, we found that children with DLD had an extensive network of lower FC across the whole brain, compared to the TD children. In particular, the sensorimotor (SM), cognitive control (CC) and default-mode (DM) networks included the largest amounts of altered FC. In detail, FC links within the DM network and between the SM and DM networks, and between the SM and CC networks were the most altered. No FC was found to be significantly higher in the children with DLD than in their peers with TD. To our knowledge, this is the first investigation of resting-state FC in children with DLD, showing widespread functional brain abnormalities that are not limited to the language network, but rather involve networks supporting other cognitive and motor functions. Such extensive functional abnormalities offer a potential explanation for the other cognitive and motor impairments characterizing DLD.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"270 ","pages":"Article 105637"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144918880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-26DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105632
Yang Fu , Jing Yang , Beatriz Bermúdez-Margaretto , Huili Wang , Damian Enrique Jan Cordón , Alberto Domínguez
The current study examined how native language (L1) orthographic features influence bilinguals’ ability to rapidly form new representations for second-language (L2) written word forms. We assessed eye movements, neural activity, and behavioral performance in sequential bilinguals with L1-L2 orthographical pairs within (Spanish-English) and across (Mandarin Chinese-English) writing systems. Participants were trained on novel English words embedded in naturalistic sentence contexts, followed by a two-day post-training session. Analyses of eye-movement variables, fixation-related potentials, and learning outcomes revealed that Spanish-English bilinguals exhibited more automatic lexical encoding of novel words, reflected in shorter fixations and attenuated early neural responses, whereas Chinese-English bilinguals maintained prolonged attentional engagement across exposures. These divergent exposure-related dynamics predicted post-training performance, with Spanish bilinguals showing greater gains after consolidation. The findings suggest that the neuroplasticity underlying L2 word learning is shaped by pre-existing cortical circuits for native linguistic features, leading to different neural strategies for forming new lexical representations.
{"title":"From eye to cortex: Tracing the neurocognitive dynamics of bilingual novel word acquisition","authors":"Yang Fu , Jing Yang , Beatriz Bermúdez-Margaretto , Huili Wang , Damian Enrique Jan Cordón , Alberto Domínguez","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105632","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105632","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The current study examined how native language (L1) orthographic features influence bilinguals’ ability to rapidly form new representations for second-language (L2) written word forms. We assessed eye movements, neural activity, and behavioral performance in sequential bilinguals with L1-L2 orthographical pairs within (Spanish-English) and across (Mandarin Chinese-English) writing systems. Participants were trained on novel English words embedded in naturalistic sentence contexts, followed by a two-day post-training session. Analyses of eye-movement variables, fixation-related potentials, and learning outcomes revealed that Spanish-English bilinguals exhibited more automatic lexical encoding of novel words, reflected in shorter fixations and attenuated early neural responses, whereas Chinese-English bilinguals maintained prolonged attentional engagement across exposures. These divergent exposure-related dynamics predicted post-training performance, with Spanish bilinguals showing greater gains after consolidation. The findings suggest that the neuroplasticity underlying L2 word learning is shaped by pre-existing cortical circuits for native linguistic features, leading to different neural strategies for forming new lexical representations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"270 ","pages":"Article 105632"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144902945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-26DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105635
Arianna N. LaCroix , Corianne Rogalsky
Linguistic prosody is essential for language comprehension, but our recent findings suggest that some people with stroke (PWS) comprehend sentences better when typical prosodic contours are replaced with list-like prosody. We investigated this surprising behavioral finding by examining the neural basis of list prosody using fMRI in neurotypical controls, finding increased activation in the bilateral posterior superior temporal gyri, regardless of sentence structure. In PWS, lesion-symptom mapping revealed distinct effects: those with left posterior superior temporal gyrus and left striatum damage showed slower response times with list prosody for simple sentences and faster but less accurate responses for complex sentences. Conversely, PWS with left globus pallidus damage benefitted from list prosody, showing faster responses for simple sentences and slower but more accurate responses for complex ones. These findings inform a neuroanatomical model of the role of implicit timing in auditory sentence comprehension, providing a framework for future research.
{"title":"An exploratory study and new model of the role of implicit timing in sentence comprehension","authors":"Arianna N. LaCroix , Corianne Rogalsky","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105635","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105635","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Linguistic prosody is essential for language comprehension, but our recent findings suggest that some people with stroke (PWS) comprehend sentences better when typical prosodic contours are replaced with list-like prosody. We investigated this surprising behavioral finding by examining the neural basis of list prosody using fMRI in neurotypical controls, finding increased activation in the bilateral posterior superior temporal gyri, regardless of sentence structure. In PWS, lesion-symptom mapping revealed distinct effects: those with left posterior superior temporal gyrus and left striatum damage showed slower response times with list prosody for simple sentences and faster but less accurate responses for complex sentences. Conversely, PWS with left globus pallidus damage benefitted from list prosody, showing faster responses for simple sentences and slower but more accurate responses for complex ones. These findings inform a neuroanatomical model of the role of implicit timing in auditory sentence comprehension, providing a framework for future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"270 ","pages":"Article 105635"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144895507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-19DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105634
Xinqi Su , Lala Gu , Rui Hu , XiaoXue Feng , Aqian Li , Jingyu Yang , Leilei Mei
Previous studies have revealed the involvement of the bilateral ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOT) in word reading, especially in Chinese character reading. However, the interhemispheric communication mechanisms of the bilateral vOT and how they work in Chinese character reading have not been fully investigated. Two experiments were conducted in this study to address those questions using resting-state and task-based fMRI. Experiment 1 revealed stronger interhemispheric resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in the posterior vOT subregion compared to the middle and anterior subregions and a significant positive correlation with Chinese reading efficiency in the posterior subregion. Experiment 2 further explored the effective connectivity in the Chinese rhythm and semantic judgment tasks using dynamic causal model analysis. Results showed significant interhemispheric intrinsic connections similar to those in the resting state in the posterior subregion and right-to-left modulatory connections in the middle and anterior subregions. In addition, stronger right-to-left modulatory connectivity in the anterior subregion was associated with better behavioral performance in the semantic judgment task. These convergent findings highlight the importance of interhemispheric communication of the bilateral vOT in Chinese character reading.
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