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PubMed2006

Orthographic transparency and grapheme-phoneme conversion: An ERP study in Arabic and French readers.

Numerous behavioral studies have suggested that orthographic transparency of a language is liable to influence the use of grapheme-phoneme conversion during reading. In order to test this hypothesis, the effect of orthographic transparency on event-related potentials was assessed by comparing French to Arab readers. Indeed, French language, contrary to Arabic one, was expected to favor the use of grapheme-phoneme rules during reading. Our results demonstrated that the N320, a component implicated in phonologic transcription, was modulated by orthographic transparency. Indeed, during reading in their mother tongue, only French subjects clearly elicited a N320. Moreover, the comparisons between activations elicited by Arabic words in Arab subjects and French monolingual people also confirm that the N170 component represents an important orthographic stage. The implications of these results on bilinguism and visual word recognition models are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

ERP measures of auditory word repetition and translation priming in bilinguals.

Motivated by the demonstration of similarly localized adaptation of the hemodynamic response in a first (L1) and second (L2) language, this study examined event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to spoken words in L1 and L2 in 15 English-French bilinguals. We examined whether the temporal pattern of N400 adaptation due to within-language repetitions (i.e., repetition priming) was similar in L1 and L2 and whether the release from adaptation elicited by a within-language word change was similar. Furthermore, using word changes across language, we examined the phonological mismatch negativity (PMN) and N400 components to determine the kind of information activated during translation priming. In contrast to within-language repetition, we expected between-language repetition (i.e., translations) to be characterized by conceptual rather than lexical/phonological word form priming. Overall, the pattern of adaptation and release from adaptation was similar in L1 and L2, with evidence of delayed semantic analysis in L2 in the form of a later N400 effect. A change in language (L1 to L2) elicited a similar pattern of PMN and N400 activity compared to a within-language change in meaning in L1, suggesting that neither word form nor conceptual information was available on-line for the forward translation. In contrast, the presence of strong PMN but minimal N400 effects for L2-to-L1 translations suggests that conceptual but not phonological information is available on-line for backwards translation. L2 proficiency influenced the extent to which conceptual representations were activated by translations. These data are discussed in light of current models of bilingual word processing and suggest modality differences in the pattern of activation of lexical and conceptual information.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2006

Effects of syntactic complexity in L1 and L2; an fMRI study of Korean-English bilinguals.

The neural mechanisms underlying the syntactic processing of sentence comprehension in Korean (L1) and English (L2) by late bilinguals were investigated using functional MRI. The Korean native speakers were asked to read sentences with different levels of syntactic complexity in L1 and L2 and respond to comprehension questions concerning the sentences. The syntactic complexity was varied using a center-embedded sentence "The director that the maid introduced ignored the farmer" or a conjoined sentence "The maid introduced the director and ignored the farmer". It was found that the major areas involved in sentence processing such as the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), bilateral inferior parietal gyrus, and occipital lobe including cuneus, and lingual gyrus were commonly activated during the processing of both L1 and L2. However, the pattern of activation was different for L1 and L2 in the left IFG. The amount of activation was greater for embedded sentences than for conjoined sentences in L1 while no difference was found in L2. These results suggest that the cortical areas involved with syntactic processing in L1 and L2 are shared, but that the underlying neural mechanisms are different. The findings of the present study are discussed in comparison with Hasegawa et al.'s (Hasegawa, M., Carpenter, P.A., Just, M.A., 2002. An fMRI study of bilingual sentence comprehension and workload. NeuroImage 15, 647-660.) and Yokoyama et al.'s (Yokoyama, S., Okamoto, H., Miyamoto, T., Yoshimoto, K., Kim, J., Iwata, K., Jeong, H., Uchida, S., Ikuta, N., Sassa, Y., Nakamura, W., Horie, K., Sato, S., Kawashima, R., 2006. Cortical activation in the processing of passive sentences in L1 and L2: An fMRI study. NeuroImage 30, 570-579.) studies which also found common areas of activation but different patterns of activation during the processing of L1 and L2.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Language-specific memory traces of consonants in the brain.

This study examined whether experience with a native language affected processing of a place-of-articulation feature. In Experiment 1, 10 stimuli from a continuum of synthesized Hindi bilabial, dental and retroflexed stops were presented to English and Hindi speakers to examine discrimination and identification across the bilabial/dental and dental/retroflexed boundaries. In an oddball task designed to elicit mismatch negativity (MMN), subjects ignored these stimuli while their brain activity was recorded. All participants showed similar behavioral discrimination and identification. However, the English subjects were slower that the Hindi subjects on the discrimination task. All subjects were less accurate and slower at identifying and discriminating the dental and retroflexed compared to the bilabial sounds. A small MMN was observed for some of the bilabial-dental contrasts, but not for the dental-retroflexed contrasts. No group differences were found. In Experiment 2, MMN was observed to a greater stimulus difference (bilabial-retroflexed) and was earlier when the bilabial rather than the retroflexed sound served as the frequent stimulus for both groups. The MMN was also earlier for the Hindi than the English groups when the retroflexed sound served as the frequent stimulus. These results indicate that the Hindi speakers used detailed acoustic-phonetic information for more rapid brain discrimination than the English participants and that the dental-retroflexed discrimination is more difficult than the bilabial-dental discrimination for all speakers.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2005

Processing semantic anomalies in two languages: an electrophysiological exploration in both languages of Spanish-English bilinguals.

The latency of the brain response to semantic anomalies (N400 effect) has been found to be longer in a bilingual's second language (L2) than in their first language (L1) and/or to that seen in monolinguals. This has been explained in terms of late exposure to L2, although age of exposure and language proficiency are often highly correlated. We thus examined the relative contributions of these factors not only in L2 but also in L1 in a group of Spanish-English bilinguals for whom age of exposure and language proficiency were not highly correlated by recording event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to semantically congruous/incongruous words completing written sentences. We also divided our bilinguals into a Spanish-dominant subset who had late exposure and reduced vocabulary proficiency [as measured by Boston Naming Test (BNT) and Verbal Fluency Scores] in L2 (English) relative to L1 (Spanish) and an English-dominant group who had early exposure to both their languages although greater proficiency in English than in Spanish. In both groups, the N400 effect was significantly later in the nondominant than the dominant language. Although this slowing could be due to late exposure to English in the Spanish-dominant group, late exposure cannot explain the slowing in Spanish in the English-dominant group. Overall, we found that vocabulary proficiency and age of exposure are both important in determining the timing of semantic integration effects during written sentence processing--with vocabulary proficiency predicting the timing of semantic analysis in L1 and both age of exposure and language proficiency, although highly correlated, making additional small but uncorrelated contributions to the speed of semantic analysis/integration in L2.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Zooming into L2: global language context and adjustment affect processing of interlingual homographs in sentences.

In a semantic priming study, we investigated the processing of German-English homographs such as gift (German = "poison", English = "present") in sentence contexts using a joint reaction time (RT)/event-related brain potential (ERP) measure. Native German speakers with intermediate or advanced knowledge of English (N = 48) performed an all-L2 (English) experiment where sentences such as "The woman gave her friend an expensive gift" (control prime: item) were presented, followed by targets (i.e., boss) for lexical decision. To test the role of global task effects during sentence processing, we presented half the participants (N = 24) with a 20-min silent film narrated in German and half (N = 24) with the film in English before the experiment. To address the development of task effects over time, we analyzed the first and second blocks of the experiment. The results showed a significant interaction between semantic priming, movie version, and block in both the RTs and ERPs: there was significant semantic priming in the RTs and modulations in the N200 and N400 components only for participants who viewed the German movie, and only during the first block. Results suggest that in an all-L2 sentence task with L2 pre-task priming (English film), decision thresholds are raised high enough to eliminate measurable influence of the L1 on the L2. Despite identical material, participants who viewed the German film had to adjust, or zoom in, to the all-L2 task. Implications of this zooming in process in are discussed in terms of the recent Bilingual Interactive Activation (BIA+) model of bilingual word recognition [T. Dijkstra, W.J.B. Van Heuven, The architecture of the bilingual word recognition system: from identification to decision, Bilingualism: Lang. Cogn. 5 (2002) 175-197].

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2005

Morphological processing in early bilinguals: an ERP study of regular and irregular verb processing.

Although the age of acquisition of a language has an effect when learning a second language, the similarity between languages may also have a crucial role. The aim of the present study is to understand the influence of this latter factor in the acquisition of morphosyntactic information. With this purpose, two groups of highly proficient early Catalan-Spanish bilinguals were presented with a repetition-priming paradigm with regular and irregular verbs of Spanish. Catalan and Spanish have a similar suffix (-o) for regular verbs and completely different alternations for irregular verbs. Two types of irregular verbs were studied (semi-regular verbs with a systematic diphthong alternation, sentir-siento, and verbs with idiosyncratic changes, venir-vengo). Regular verbs showed the same centro-parietal N400 priming effect in the second-language speakers (L2) as in primary-language (L1) speakers. However, differences between groups, in the ERP pattern and the topography of the N400 effect, were observed for irregular morphology. In L1 speakers, the N400 effect was attenuated only for semi-regular verbs. In contrast, L2 speakers showed a reduced N400 priming effect in both irregular contrasts. This pattern of results suggests that the similarity between languages may help for similar structures but may interfere for dissimilar structures, at least when the two languages have very similar morphological systems.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Characteristic functional networks in high- versus low-proficiency second language speakers detected also during native language processing: an explorative EEG coherence study in 6 frequency bands.

An EEG coherence study was performed with a twofold objective: first, to scrutinize the theoretical concept of "cortical efficiency" in connection with second language (L2) acquisition and, second, to detect cooperations between cortical areas in specific frequency bands indicative for highly proficient L2 processing. Two groups differing only in their level of L2 proficiency were contrasted during presentation of natural language videos in English (L2) and German (native language, L1), with explorative coherence analysis in 6 frequency bands (0.5-31.5 Hz). The coherence brain maps revealed more pronounced and widespread increases in coherences in the alpha1-band (8-10 Hz) in low-proficiency than in the high-proficiency L2 speakers. Surprisingly, this difference was obtained also during L1 processing and corroborated for both languages by multivariate permutation tests. These tests revealed additional differences between the low- and the high-proficiency group also for coherences within the beta1- (13-18 Hz) and the beta2-band (18.5-31.5 Hz), again during L2 and L1 processing. Since the same group differences were observed during L1 and L2 processing, our high-proficiency group might have profited from a more generic advantage in language or text processing strategy. This strategic advantage was most evident at alpha1 frequencies, possibly related to a specific way of processing internal mental states (top-down processing).

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2006

Reading for repetition and reading for translation: do they involve the same processes?

UNLABELLED: Theories of translation differ in the role assigned to the reformulation process. One view, the "horizontal" approach, considers that translation involves on-line searches for matches between linguistic entries in the two languages involved [Gerver, D. (1976). Empirical studies of simultaneous interpretation: A review and a model. In R. W. Brislin (Ed.), Translation: Applications and research (pp. 165-207). New York: Gardiner]. The second view, the "vertical" approach, assumes that on-line reformulation does not take place while reading: translation involves giving lexical expression to the meaning extracted after comprehension [Seleskovitch, D. (1976). INTERPRETATION: A psychological approach to translating. In R.W. Brislin (Ed.), Translation: Applications and research (pp. 92-116). New York: Gardner]. In four experiments, translators or bilinguals read sentences for repetition or for translation. When participants read for translation, on-line and global comprehension was affected by lexical ambiguity and memory load (Experiment 1a and 1b). Furthermore, cognate words located at the final portion of the sentences facilitated performance (Experiment 2a and 2b). However, when participants were asked to understand and repeat the sentences, lexical ambiguity and the cognate status of the words did not have any effect. This pattern of results provides support for horizontal theories of translation.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2005

Language-experience facilitates discrimination of /d-th/ in monolingual and bilingual acquisition of English.

To trace how age and language experience shape the discrimination of native and non-native phonetic contrasts, we compared 4-year-olds learning either English or French or both and simultaneous bilingual adults on their ability to discriminate the English /d-th/ contrast. Findings show that the ability to discriminate the native English contrast improved with age. However, in the absence of experience with this contrast, discrimination of French children and adults remained unchanged during development. Furthermore, although simultaneous bilingual and monolingual English adults were comparable, children exposed to both English and French were poorer at discriminating this contrast when compared to monolingual English-learning 4-year-olds. Thus, language experience facilitates perception of the English /d-th/ contrast and this facilitation occurs later in development when English and French are acquired simultaneously. The difference between bilingual and monolingual acquisition has implications for language organization in children with simultaneous exposure.

Canada↗
PubMed2004

Redintegration and the benefits of long-term knowledge in verbal short-term memory: an evaluation of Schweickert's (1993) multinomial processing tree model.

The impact of four long-term knowledge variables on serial recall accuracy was investigated. Serial recall was tested for high and low frequency words and high and low phonotactic frequency nonwords in 2 groups: monolingual English speakers and French-English bilinguals. For both groups the recall advantage for words over nonwords reflected more fully correct recalls with fewer recall attempts that consisted of fragments of the target memory items (one or two of the three target phonemes recalled correctly); completely incorrect recalls were equivalent for the 2 list types. However, word frequency (for both groups), nonword phonotactic frequency (for the monolingual group), and language familiarity all influenced the proportions of completely incorrect recalls that were made. These results are not consistent with the view that long-term knowledge influences on immediate recall accuracy can be exclusively attributed to a redintegration process of the type specified in multinomial processing tree model of immediate recall. The finding of a differential influence on completely incorrect recalls of these four long-term knowledge variables suggests instead that the beneficial effects of long-term knowledge on short-term recall accuracy are mediated by more than one mechanism.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

The neural basis of first and second language processing.

Fundamental breakthroughs in the neurosciences, combined with technical innovations for measuring brain activity, are shedding new light on the neural basis of second language (L2) processing, and on its relationship to native language processing (L1). The long-held assumption that L1 and L2 are necessarily represented in different brain regions in bilinguals has not been confirmed. On the contrary, the available evidence indicates that L1 and L2 are processed by the same neural devices. The neural differences in L1 and L2 representations are only related to the specific computational demands, which vary according to the age of acquisition, the degree of mastery and the level of exposure to each language. Finally, the acquisition of L2 could be considered as a dynamic process, requiring additional neural resources in specific circumstances.

Humans↗
PubMed2006

Validation of the Punjabi version of the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale (EPDS).

This study reports a project to validate a Punjabi translation of the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale (EPDS). The study involved three points of data collection. Bilingual (Punjabi and English speaking) new mothers completed the English and Punjabi EPDS on two separate occasions and underwent a diagnostic interview. At a threshold of 12.5 the Punjabi scale yielded a sensitivity of 71.4 and specificity of 93.7. Analysis suggests criterion and conceptual equivalence between the two scales. A users' evaluation indicates that the tool was acceptable to the majority of mothers, however, the scale may be more applicable for mothers for whom Punjabi is their first language.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Searching for behavioral indicators of bipolar II in patients presenting with major depressive episodes: the "red sign," the "rule of three" and other biographic signs of temperamental extravagance, activation and hypomania.

BACKGROUND: Since 1977, the work of the author has shown the primacy of behavioral activation, flamboyance, and extravagance in detecting hypomania, the historical hallmark of cyclothymic and the broader spectrum of bipolar II (BP-II) disorders. In other words, the soft spectrum is more likely to declare itself in behavioral rather than mood disturbances. The obligatory search for elation and related mood changes a la DSM-IV (and its interview form, the SCID) during the clinical interview is often doomed to failure, thereby "condemning" the patient to a unipolar diagnosis, and hence to sequential and often tragic failures with antidepressants or combinations thereof. METHODS: To characterize behavioral signs of good specificity, though individually of low sensitivity for BP-II in patents presenting with major depression, the author undertook a chart review of over 1000 depressive patients he had examined extending over a period of nearly three decades. The Mood Clinic Data Questionnaire (MCDQ) used in the author's Memphis mood clinic permitted systematization of unstructured observations. BP-II had been independently confirmed by hypomania of > or =2 days and/or cyclothymia over the course of the index illness (both of which were validated by family history for bipolarity in earlier research in our clinic). RESULTS: Triads of behavior or traits in the patients' biographical history-as well as in the biologic kin-involving polyglottism, eminence, creative achievement, professional instability, multiple substance/alcohol use, multiple comorbidity (axis I and axis II), multiple marriages, a broad repertoire of sexual behavior (including brief interludes of homosexuality), impulse control disorders, as well as ornamentation and flamboyance (with red and other bright colors dominating) were specific for BP-II. Temperamentally, many of these individuals thrive on activity-they are indeed "activity junkies." LIMITATION: The reported findings pertain primarily to the differential diagnosis between BP-II and unipolar depression. Replication of the approach espoused herein will require quantification of the operational definitions of the observed phenomenology. CONCLUSION: The findings, which make sense in an evolutionary model of the advantage that "dilute" bipolar traits confer to human biography and erotic life, suggest that such behavioral traits can be useful provisionally in assigning a depressive episode to the realm of the bipolar II spectrum. Overall, the perspective espoused in this paper indicates that temperamental excesses and, more generally, a biographical approach, represent a more coherent approach than hypomanic episodes in the diagnosis of BP-II patients. Finally, such a diagnostic approach underscores the importance of incorporating evolutionary considerations and principles in understanding the origin of affective disorders.

Arousal↗
PubMed2005

Comparative validation of a bilingual interactive multimedia dietary assessment tool.

OBJECTIVE: To perform comparative validity testing for a bilingual interactive multimedia (IMM) dietary assessment tool that mimics a dietary recall against an interview-administered dietary recall. DESIGN: This was a two-period crossover design study. First, participants were randomly assigned to complete an IMM recall or interview-administered 24-hour recall. The IMM recall generated a nutrient profile that included 20 dietary constituents. The interview-administered recall was analyzed using the Food Intake Analysis System (FIAS) and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) Evaluating/Reporting System. The effect of substituting standardized portion sizes for reported portion sizes was examined. SUBJECTS/SETTING: Of 80 adult participants, 71 (91%) were female, 45 (56%) had 12th grade or less education, 65 (81%) had an annual income of dollar 15,000 or less, and 21 (26%) completed the IMM recall in Spanish. STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED: Analysis of variance and unadjusted and energy-adjusted correlations were used. RESULTS: No significant group differences were found for order of administration or demographic characteristics. There was only one significant (P=.025) method effect, whereby vitamin C intake was higher in the IMM recall than the FIAS. The unadjusted correlations between the IMM recalls and interview-administered recalls analyzed using both FIAS and EFNEP Evaluating/Reporting System were generally approximately 0.6. Energy-adjusted correlations were consistently lower. Substituting standardized portion sizes resulted in significant differences for six nutrients and caused all correlations to decrease. CONCLUSIONS: The IMM dietary recall is a valid method for assessing dietary intake within the tested group. The results of comparative validity testing and positive reactions received from participants and nutrition educators indicate that diet assessment using IMM has tremendous potential.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Speech-language pathologists' training and confidence in serving Spanish-English bilingual children.

UNLABELLED: The purpose of the investigation was to determine the level of training and confidence of speech-language pathologists in serving Spanish-English bilingual children. Surveys were completed by 213 speech-language pathologists working in the public schools. Comparisons were made among responses from non-diverse rural, non-diverse urban, and diverse urban areas. Results revealed that approximately one-third of the sample did not receive training in multicultural/multilingual issues as undergraduates or graduate students. Approximately, one-fifth of the sample could not recall whether or not they had received training in this area. Eighteen to 25% of the respondents in the three groups received information through lectures in one or more courses. A larger percentage of speech-language pathologists from non-diverse urban areas received training on specific topics related to multicultural/multilingual topics and participated in a larger number of continuing education activities than speech-language pathologists from diverse urban and non-diverse rural areas. No differences were found among the three groups with regard to their confidence in serving bilingual children. Although speech-language pathologists had some confidence when assessing bilingual children whose primary language was English, and when working with bilingual parents and interpreters, respondents lacked confidence when assessing bilingual children whose primary language was Spanish and when working with parents who do not speak English. Implications for the profession are discussed. LEARNING OUTCOMES: (1) As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to discuss the training speech-language pathologists have received in the area of multilingual/multicultural children. (2) As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to discuss speech-language pathologists' level of confidence when serving bilingual, Hispanic children. (3) As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to articulate the implications of this study for current training programs and the profession.

Child↗