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Brain Sciences
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Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Language Acquisition and Processing
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Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Language Acquisition and Processing

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Neurolinguistics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 March 2022) | Viewed by 25525

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Jason Rothman

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Guest Editor
Department of Language and Culture, UiT The Arctic University of Norway & Nebrija University, Tromsø, Norway
Interests: language acquisition; language processing; neurocognition and bilingualism; behavioral methods; EEG; MRI
Prof. Dr. Vincent DeLuca

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Guest Editor
Department of Language and Culture, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
Interests: neurocognition and bilingualism; EEG and MRI
Dr. Alicia Luque

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Guest Editor
Department of Language and Culture, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
Interests: language acquisition; language processing; neurocognition and multilingualism; behavioral methods and EEG
Dr. Yanina Prystauka

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Guest Editor
Department of Language and Culture, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
Interests: language processing; EEG & MRI
Dr. Toms Voits

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Guest Editor
Department of Language and Culture, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
Interests: neurocognition and bilingualism; cognitive aging and bilingualism; MRI

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

For a long time now, work in (psycho)linguistics, psychology, cognitive neuroscience and related fields has studied how humans learn/acquire, mentally represent and process one, two or more language(s). Over the past few decades in particular, relevant empirical evidence from brain imaging methods, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetoencephalography (MEG) has provided key insights to unpack how language is acquired and processed at the neural level. As a result, we now have deeper theories and better insights regarding the potential (neuro)cognitive mechanisms involved and an improved understanding of the neurocognitive consequences of language in the mind/brain. This SI is dedicated to furthering our understanding of the nature of language representation in the brain with a specific focus on acquisition and processing. We welcome submissions exploring the multitude of neural processes underlying the dynamic nature of linguistic representations across development in the acquisition and during real-time processing as language unfolds. Potential themes/topics include but are not limited to the following: (i) linguistic representations and processing in the brain, including how (and why) they may change over time; (ii) brain change, e.g., naturally over the life span as in cognitive aging, by virtue of shifts in relevant experience with language (i.e., attrition at any age) and/or due to genetic or acquired impairments affecting language acquisition/processing at any age; (iii) how neurological predispositions might delimit the nature and trajectory of language acquisition/processing; and (iv) brain evidence that speaks to fundamentally different or similar qualitative processes in language acquisition/processing as a function of age and or (mono-, bi-, multi-)-lingualism. While such questions can be addressed with offline and online behavioral measures such as eye-tracking, we especially welcome papers using methods typically present in the work appearing in Brain Sciences, especially (f)MRI, EEG (ERP and neural oscillations), MEG, etc., however papers with other methods (eye-tracking or other behavioral methods) will be considered provided they have a clear cognitive/brain component. The goal is for this SI to serve as a platform from which a better understanding can be gleaned from the unique contributions of neural methods to questions on language acquisition and processing. 

Prof. Dr. Jason Rothman
Prof. Dr. Vincent DeLuca
Dr. Alicia Luque
Dr. Yanina Prystauka
Dr. Toms Voits
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Language Acquisition
  • Language Processing
  • Neurocognition

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Editorial

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8 pages, 233 KiB  
Editorial
Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Language Acquisition and Processing
by Yanina Prystauka, Vincent DeLuca, Alicia Luque, Toms Voits and Jason Rothman
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(12), 1613; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci13121613 - 21 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1402
Abstract
The earliest investigations of the neural implementation of language started with examining patients with various types of disorders and underlying brain damage [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Language Acquisition and Processing)

Research

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18 pages, 1395 KiB  
Article
Agents Strongly Preferred: ERP Evidence from Natives and Non-Natives Processing Intransitive Sentences in Spanish
by Adam Zawiszewski, Gillen Martinez de la Hidalga and Itziar Laka
Brain Sci. 2022, 12(7), 853; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci12070853 - 29 Jun 2022
Viewed by 1301
Abstract
Are non-native speakers able to process their second language in a native-like way? The present study used the Event-Related Potentials’ (ERPs) method to address this issue by focusing (1) on agent vs. agentless intransitive sentences and (2) on person vs. number agreement morphology. [...] Read more.
Are non-native speakers able to process their second language in a native-like way? The present study used the Event-Related Potentials’ (ERPs) method to address this issue by focusing (1) on agent vs. agentless intransitive sentences and (2) on person vs. number agreement morphology. For that purpose, native and high proficiency and early non-native speakers of Spanish were tested while processing intransitive sentences containing grammatical and ungrammatical subject–verb agreement. Results reveal greater accuracy in the agent (unergative) condition as compared with the agentless (unaccusative) condition and different ERP patterns for both types of verbs in all participants, suggesting a larger processing cost for the agentless sentences than for the agentive ones. These effects were more pronounced in the native group as compared with the non-native one in the early time window (300–500 ms). Differences between person and number agreement processing were also found at both behavioral and electrophysiological levels, indicating that those morphological features are distinctively processed. Importantly, this pattern of results held for both native and non-native speakers, thus suggesting that native-like competence is attainable given early Age of Acquisition (AoA), frequent use and high proficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Language Acquisition and Processing)
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25 pages, 5805 KiB  
Article
Testing Potential Transfer Effects in Heritage and Adult L2 Bilinguals Acquiring a Mini Grammar as an Additional Language: An ERP Approach
by Sergio Miguel Pereira Soares, Tanja Kupisch and Jason Rothman
Brain Sci. 2022, 12(5), 669; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci12050669 - 20 May 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2549
Abstract
Models on L3/Ln acquisition differ with respect to how they envisage degree (holistic vs. selective transfer of the L1, L2 or both) and/or timing (initial stages vs. development) of how the influence of source languages unfolds. This study uses EEG/ERPs to examine [...] Read more.
Models on L3/Ln acquisition differ with respect to how they envisage degree (holistic vs. selective transfer of the L1, L2 or both) and/or timing (initial stages vs. development) of how the influence of source languages unfolds. This study uses EEG/ERPs to examine these models, bringing together two types of bilinguals: heritage speakers (HSs) (Italian-German, n = 15) compared to adult L2 learners (L1 German, L2 English, n = 28) learning L3/Ln Latin. Participants were trained on a selected Latin lexicon over two sessions and, afterward, on two grammatical properties: case (similar between German and Latin) and adjective–noun order (similar between Italian and Latin). Neurophysiological findings show an N200/N400 deflection for the HSs in case morphology and a P600 effect for the German L2 group in adjectival position. None of the current L3/Ln models predict the observed results, which questions the appropriateness of this methodology. Nevertheless, the results are illustrative of differences in how HSs and L2 learners approach the very initial stages of additional language learning, the implications of which are discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Language Acquisition and Processing)
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24 pages, 2800 KiB  
Article
The Effects of Working Memory Capacity in Metaphor and Metonymy Comprehension in Mandarin–English Bilinguals’ Minds: An fMRI Study
by Chia-Hsin Yin and Fan-Pei Gloria Yang
Brain Sci. 2022, 12(5), 633; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci12050633 - 11 May 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3088
Abstract
This study investigated the role of working memory capacity (WMC) in metaphoric and metonymic processing in Mandarin–English bilinguals’ minds. It also explored the neural correlations between metaphor and metonymy computations. We adopted an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design, which consisted of [...] Read more.
This study investigated the role of working memory capacity (WMC) in metaphoric and metonymic processing in Mandarin–English bilinguals’ minds. It also explored the neural correlations between metaphor and metonymy computations. We adopted an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design, which consisted of 21 English dialogic sets of stimuli and 5 conditions: systematic literal, circumstantial literal, metaphor, systematic metonymy, and circumstantial metonymy, all contextualized in daily conversations. Similar fronto-temporal networks were found for the figurative language processing patterns: the superior temporal gyrus (STG) for metaphorical comprehension, and the inferior parietal junction (IPJ) for metonymic processing. Consistent brain regions have been identified in previous studies in the homologue right hemisphere of better WMC bilinguals. The degree to which bilateral strategies that bilinguals with better WMC or larger vocabulary size resort to is differently modulated by subtypes of metonymies. In particular, when processing circumstantial metonymy, the cuneus (where putamen is contained) is activated as higher-span bilinguals filter out irrelevant information, resorting to inhibitory control use. Cingulate gyrus activation has also been revealed in better WMC bilinguals, reflecting their mental flexibility to adopt the subjective perspective of critical figurative items with self-control. It is hoped that this research provides a better understanding of Mandarin–English bilinguals’ English metaphoric and metonymic processing in Taiwan. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Language Acquisition and Processing)
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19 pages, 783 KiB  
Article
It Takes a Village: Using Network Science to Identify the Effect of Individual Differences in Bilingual Experience for Theory of Mind
by Ester Navarro, Vincent DeLuca and Eleonora Rossi
Brain Sci. 2022, 12(4), 487; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci12040487 - 09 Apr 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2508
Abstract
An increasing amount of research has examined the effects of bilingualism on performance in theory of mind (ToM) tasks. Bilinguals outperform monolinguals in ToM when comparing groups. However, it is unclear what aspects of the bilingual experience contribute to this effect in a [...] Read more.
An increasing amount of research has examined the effects of bilingualism on performance in theory of mind (ToM) tasks. Bilinguals outperform monolinguals in ToM when comparing groups. However, it is unclear what aspects of the bilingual experience contribute to this effect in a dynamic construct like ToM. To date, bilingualism has been conceptualized as a dichotic skill that is distinct from monolingualism, obscuring nuances in the degree that different bilingual experience affects cognition. The current study used a combination of network science, cognitive, and linguistic behavioral measurements to explore the factors that influence perspective-taking ToM based on participants’ current and previous experience with language, as well as their family networks’ experience with language. The results suggest that some aspects of the bilingual experience predict task performance, but not others, and these predictors align with the two-system theory of ToM. Overall, the findings provide evidence for the extent to which individual differences in bilingualism are related to different cognitive outcomes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Language Acquisition and Processing)
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17 pages, 1614 KiB  
Article
Understanding Temporal Relations in Mandarin Chinese: An ERP Investigation
by Lijuan Chen, Yiyi Lu and Xiaodong Xu
Brain Sci. 2022, 12(4), 474; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci12040474 - 03 Apr 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1951
Abstract
Temporal connectives play a crucial role in marking the sequence of events during language comprehension. Although existing studies have shown that sentence comprehension can be modulated by temporal connectives, they have mainly focused on languages with grammatical tense such as English. It thus [...] Read more.
Temporal connectives play a crucial role in marking the sequence of events during language comprehension. Although existing studies have shown that sentence comprehension can be modulated by temporal connectives, they have mainly focused on languages with grammatical tense such as English. It thus remains unclear how temporal information is processed in tenseless languages. The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine how world knowledge is retrieved and integrated in sentences linked by zhiqian (before) and zhihou (after) in Mandarin Chinese (e.g., After/Before going to the countryside, Grandpa went to the city because the air there was fresh and pure). The critical words (e.g., fresh) were either congruent or incongruent with world knowledge. Relative to the after-congruent sentences, the after-incongruent sentences evoked a P600 on critical words and a negativity on sentence-final words, whereas relative to before-congruent sentences, before-incongruent sentences showed no significant difference on critical words but a sustained negativity on sentence-final words. Additionally, before-congruent sentences elicited a larger sustained positivity (P600) than after-congruent sentences. The results suggest that before is more difficult to process than after in Mandarin Chinese, supporting the iconicity account of temporal relations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Language Acquisition and Processing)
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29 pages, 4094 KiB  
Article
Effect of Lexical-Semantic Cues during Real-Time Sentence Processing in Aphasia
by Niloofar Akhavan, Christina Sen, Carolyn Baker, Noelle Abbott, Michelle Gravier and Tracy Love
Brain Sci. 2022, 12(3), 312; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci12030312 - 25 Feb 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2411
Abstract
Using a visual world eye-tracking paradigm, we investigated the real-time auditory sentence processing of neurologically unimpaired listeners and individuals with aphasia. We examined whether lexical-semantic cues provided as adjectives of a target noun modulate the encoding and retrieval dynamics of a noun phrase [...] Read more.
Using a visual world eye-tracking paradigm, we investigated the real-time auditory sentence processing of neurologically unimpaired listeners and individuals with aphasia. We examined whether lexical-semantic cues provided as adjectives of a target noun modulate the encoding and retrieval dynamics of a noun phrase during the processing of complex, non-canonical sentences. We hypothesized that the real-time processing pattern of sentences containing a semantically biased lexical cue (e.g., the venomous snake) would be different than sentences containing unbiased adjectives (e.g., the voracious snake). More specifically, we predicted that the presence of a biased lexical cue would facilitate (1) lexical encoding (i.e., boosted lexical access) of the target noun, snake, and (2) on-time syntactic retrieval or dependency linking (i.e., increasing the probability of on-time lexical retrieval at post-verb gap site) for both groups. For unimpaired listeners, results revealed a difference in the time course of gaze trajectories to the target noun (snake) during lexical encoding and syntactic retrieval in the biased compared to the unbiased condition. In contrast, for the aphasia group, the presence of biased adjectives did not affect the time course of processing the target noun. Yet, at the post-verb gap site, the presence of a semantically biased adjective influenced syntactic re-activation. Our results extend the cue-based parsing model by offering new and valuable insights into the processes underlying sentence comprehension of individuals with aphasia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Language Acquisition and Processing)
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34 pages, 30703 KiB  
Article
Syntactic and Semantic Influences on the Time Course of Relative Clause Processing: The Role of Language Dominance
by Michael C. Stern, LeeAnn Stover, Ernesto Guerra and Gita Martohardjono
Brain Sci. 2021, 11(8), 989; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci11080989 - 27 Jul 2021
Viewed by 2589
Abstract
We conducted a visual world eye-tracking experiment with highly proficient Spanish-English bilingual adults to investigate the effects of relative language dominance, operationalized as a continuous, multidimensional variable, on the time course of relative clause processing in the first-learned language, Spanish. We found that [...] Read more.
We conducted a visual world eye-tracking experiment with highly proficient Spanish-English bilingual adults to investigate the effects of relative language dominance, operationalized as a continuous, multidimensional variable, on the time course of relative clause processing in the first-learned language, Spanish. We found that participants exhibited two distinct processing preferences: a semantically driven preference to assign agency to referents of lexically animate noun phrases and a syntactically driven preference to interpret relative clauses as subject-extracted. Spanish dominance was found to exert a distinct influence on each of these preferences, gradiently attenuating the semantic preference while gradiently exaggerating the syntactic preference. While these results might be attributable to particular properties of Spanish and English, they also suggest a possible generalization that greater dominance in a language increases reliance on language-specific syntactic processing strategies while correspondingly decreasing reliance on more domain-general semantic processing strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Language Acquisition and Processing)
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17 pages, 2558 KiB  
Article
Contextual Acquisition of Concrete and Abstract Words: Behavioural and Electrophysiological Evidence
by Nadezhda Mkrtychian, Daria Gnedykh, Evgeny Blagovechtchenski, Diana Tsvetova, Svetlana Kostromina and Yury Shtyrov
Brain Sci. 2021, 11(7), 898; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci11070898 - 07 Jul 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2981
Abstract
Abstract and concrete words differ in their cognitive and neuronal underpinnings, but the exact mechanisms underlying these distinctions are unclear. We investigated differences between these two semantic types by analysing brain responses to newly learnt words with fully controlled psycholinguistic properties. Experimental participants [...] Read more.
Abstract and concrete words differ in their cognitive and neuronal underpinnings, but the exact mechanisms underlying these distinctions are unclear. We investigated differences between these two semantic types by analysing brain responses to newly learnt words with fully controlled psycholinguistic properties. Experimental participants learned 20 novel abstract and concrete words in the context of short stories. After the learning session, event-related potentials (ERPs) to newly learned items were recorded, and acquisition outcomes were assessed behaviourally in a range of lexical and semantic tasks. Behavioural results showed better performance on newly learnt abstract words in lexical tasks, whereas semantic assessments showed a tendency for higher accuracy for concrete words. ERPs to novel abstract and concrete concepts differed early on, ~150 ms after the word onset. Moreover, differences between novel words and control untrained pseudowords were observed earlier for concrete (~150 ms) than for abstract (~200 ms) words. Distributed source analysis indicated bilateral temporo-parietal activation underpinning newly established memory traces, suggesting a crucial role of Wernicke’s area and its right-hemispheric homologue in word acquisition. In sum, we report behavioural and neurophysiological processing differences between concrete and abstract words evident immediately after their controlled acquisition, confirming distinct neurocognitive mechanisms underpinning these types of semantics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Language Acquisition and Processing)
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Other

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13 pages, 939 KiB  
Brief Report
¡Hola! Nice to Meet You: Language Mixing and Biographical Information Processing
by Eneko Antón and Jon Andoni Duñabeitia
Brain Sci. 2021, 11(6), 703; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci11060703 - 26 May 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2367
Abstract
In bilingual communities, social interactions take place in both single- and mixed-language contexts. Some of the information shared in multilingual conversations, such as interlocutors’ personal information, is often required in consequent social encounters. In this study, we explored whether the autobiographical information provided [...] Read more.
In bilingual communities, social interactions take place in both single- and mixed-language contexts. Some of the information shared in multilingual conversations, such as interlocutors’ personal information, is often required in consequent social encounters. In this study, we explored whether the autobiographical information provided in a single-language context is better remembered than in an equivalent mixed-language situation. More than 400 Basque-Spanish bilingual (pre) teenagers were presented with new persons who introduced themselves by either using only Spanish or only Basque, or by inter-sententially mixing both languages. Different memory measures were collected immediately after the initial exposure to the new pieces of information (immediate recall and recognition) and on the day after (delayed recall and recognition). In none of the time points was the information provided in a mixed-language fashion worse remembered than that provided in a strict one-language context. Interestingly, the variability across participants in their sociodemographic and linguistic variables had a negligible impact on the effects. These results are discussed considering their social and educational implications for bilingual communities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Language Acquisition and Processing)
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