Pub Date : 2025-09-30DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105645
Huanhuan Yin, Martin J. Pickering
MacWhinney’s (1992) Competition Model proposes that L2 learners do not start from scratch but instead build on pre-existing L1 phonological, lexical, and syntactic representations. This approach eases the learning process yet leaves enduring traces from L1 transfer in the bilinguals’ L2 lexicon, which may influence adult language processing. In this paper, we review psycholinguistic findings on bilingual comprehension and production and propose that many effects traditionally seen as evidence of on-line cross-language activation might instead reflect the long-term impact of L1 transfer during L2 learning. This perspective helps bridge the gap between research on bilingual processing at different time scales.
{"title":"Revisiting bilingual processing: insights from L1 transfer in L2 acquisition","authors":"Huanhuan Yin, Martin J. Pickering","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105645","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105645","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>MacWhinney’s (1992) Competition Model proposes that L2 learners do not start from scratch but instead build on pre-existing L1 phonological, lexical, and syntactic representations. This approach eases the learning process yet leaves enduring traces from L1 transfer in the bilinguals’ L2 lexicon, which may influence adult language processing. In this paper, we review psycholinguistic findings on bilingual comprehension and production and propose that many effects traditionally seen as evidence of on-line cross-language activation might instead reflect the long-term impact of L1 transfer during L2 learning. This perspective helps bridge the gap between research on bilingual processing at different time scales.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"271 ","pages":"Article 105645"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145208548","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 : 2025-09-27DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105642
Julien Dampure , Horacio A. Barber
This study investigates the impact of foveal and task-related cognitive loads on meaning-based attentional guidance during visual search for words. Participants searched for words through successive three-words displays while their electroencephalogram was recorded. In target-absent trials, displays contained a central word and two parafoveal words: one distractor semantically-related to the target and one unrelated distractor. To manipulate the task-related cognitive load, participants either searched for specific words either provided beforehand (literal task) or defined only by their semantic category (categorical task). The foveal load was manipulated by varying both the lexical frequency and the semantic-relatedness with the targets of the centered word in the three-words displays. Results indicated that in the literal task, when cognitive load was low, parafoveal distractor words semantically-related to the target triggered faster attentional responses as reflected in increased P2a amplitude, while increasing foveal load delayed parafoveal semantic processing, as shown by N3 and N400 modulations. In contrast, the categorical task, characterized by higher task-related cognitive demands, showed limited evidence of parafoveal semantic processing. Rather, word processing seemed to be focused on deeper processing of central words, as evidenced by N400 variations. Altogether, this work contributes to understanding the interplay between semantic and attentional mechanisms in visual search, highlighting the influence of cognitive resources on visual word processing. Moreover, the findings suggest that covert and overt attention may follow distinct temporal dynamics in parafoveal semantic processing, underscoring the importance of considering task demands and spatial factors when comparing visual search and reading.
{"title":"Electrophysiological correlates of meaning-based attentional guidance mechanism as a function of cognitive loads in visual search for words","authors":"Julien Dampure , Horacio A. Barber","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105642","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105642","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the impact of foveal and task-related cognitive loads on meaning-based attentional guidance during visual search for words. Participants searched for words through successive three-words displays while their electroencephalogram was recorded. In target-absent trials, displays contained a central word and two parafoveal words: one distractor semantically-related to the target and one unrelated distractor. To manipulate the task-related cognitive load, participants either searched for specific words either provided beforehand (literal task) or defined only by their semantic category (categorical task). The foveal load was manipulated by varying both the lexical frequency and the semantic-relatedness with the targets of the centered word in the three-words displays. Results indicated that in the literal task, when cognitive load was low, parafoveal distractor words semantically-related to the target triggered faster attentional responses as reflected in increased P2a amplitude, while increasing foveal load delayed parafoveal semantic processing, as shown by N3 and N400 modulations. In contrast, the categorical task, characterized by higher task-related cognitive demands, showed limited evidence of parafoveal semantic processing. Rather, word processing seemed to be focused on deeper processing of central words, as evidenced by N400 variations. Altogether, this work contributes to understanding the interplay between semantic and attentional mechanisms in visual search, highlighting the influence of cognitive resources on visual word processing. Moreover, the findings suggest that covert and overt attention may follow distinct temporal dynamics in parafoveal semantic processing, underscoring the importance of considering task demands and spatial factors when comparing visual search and reading.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"271 ","pages":"Article 105642"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145159435","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 : 2025-09-27DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105644
Ana I. Pérez, Nuria Montoro, Almudena Ortega, Carmen Aguirre, Giulia Togato, Mª Teresa Bajo
Text comprehension relies on high-level cognitive processes. These processes might be challenging for young readers, especially when comprehension takes place in a non-native language, an issue that remains unexplored. Twenty-four children and twenty-six adolescent early sequential bilinguals, were presented with narratives in L1-Spanish and L2-English. Each text biased an initial inference (“baby”), which then required either literal (“The little cat…”) or inferential (“The little animal − meow…”) monitoring. Processing times at this sentence suggested less efficient comprehension monitoring in the L2, mainly with inferential information. Moreover, in a final sentence, either literal or inferential (depending on the previous sentence) revision was assessed by ERP to a disambiguating word (“cat”). N400 amplitude showed that adolescents semantically integrated the alternative concept into their situation model only in the native language, but not during L2 comprehension. Crucially, children struggled to do so in both languages. In contrast, the P600 suggested that children in the native language and adolescents in both languages performed semantic reanalyses by reducing interference from the no longer valid initial interpretation. Our findings indicate a complex interplay between development and bilingualism in the ability to revise a situation model during text comprehension.
{"title":"Developmental differences in L1 and L2 text comprehension: An ERP study","authors":"Ana I. Pérez, Nuria Montoro, Almudena Ortega, Carmen Aguirre, Giulia Togato, Mª Teresa Bajo","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105644","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105644","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Text comprehension relies on high-level cognitive processes. These processes might be challenging for young readers, especially when comprehension takes place in a non-native language, an issue that remains unexplored. Twenty-four children and twenty-six adolescent early sequential bilinguals, were presented with narratives in L1-Spanish and L2-English. Each text biased an initial inference (“baby”), which then required either literal (“<em>The little cat…</em>”) or inferential (“<em>The little animal − meow…</em>”) monitoring. Processing times at this sentence suggested less efficient comprehension monitoring in the L2, mainly with inferential information. Moreover, in a final sentence, either literal or inferential (depending on the previous sentence) revision was assessed by ERP to a disambiguating word (“<em>cat</em>”). N400 amplitude showed that adolescents semantically integrated the alternative concept into their situation model only in the native language, but not during L2 comprehension. Crucially, children struggled to do so in both languages. In contrast, the P600 suggested that children in the native language and adolescents in both languages performed semantic reanalyses by reducing interference from the no longer valid initial interpretation. Our findings indicate a complex interplay between development and bilingualism in the ability to revise a situation model during text comprehension.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"271 ","pages":"Article 105644"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145159436","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 : 2025-09-24DOI: 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。
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