Chapter 8
Semantic and lexical processing of words across two languages in Chinese-English bilinguals
The present fMRI study examined the neural correlates of semantic and lexical processing in unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals with two lexical decision tasks in both their languages. Results showed that when contrasted the participants’ responses to words with those of pseudo-words, there was no significant difference between the first language (L1) and the second language (L2), suggesting that comparable neural networks are involved in semantic processing during word recognition in unbalanced bilinguals’ two languages. However, when contrasted the neural activation patterns of words and cross strings (i.e., ++++), the weaker L2 elicited stronger activation in the left middle occipital gyrus, the left precentral gyrus, and the right superior parietal lobule, relative to the dominant L1. This indicates that more resources are engaged in lexical processing in the L2 than in the L1.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Method
- Participants
- Materials
-
Procedure
- Image acquisition and analysis
- Results
- Behavioral results
- fMRI results
-
Discussion
-
Acknowledgments
-
References
References (32)
References
Bolger, D. J., Perfetti, C. A., & Schneider, W. (2005). Cross-cultural effect on the brain revisited: Universal structures plus writing system variation. Human Brain Mapping, 25(1), 92–104. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chee, M. W., Weekes, B., Lee, K. M., Soon, C. S., Schreiber, A., Hoon, J. J., & Chee, M. (2000). Overlap and dissociation of semantic processing of Chinese characters, English words, and pictures: Evidence from fMRI. NeuroImage, 12(4), 392–403. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chee, M. W., Hon, N., Lee, H. L., & Soon, C. S. (2001). Relative language proficiency modulates BOLD signal change when bilinguals perform semantic judgments. Blood oxygen level dependent. NeuroImage, 13(6), 1155–1163. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
De Bruin, A., Roelofs, A., Dijkstra, T., & FitzPatrick, I. (2014). Domain-general inhibition areas of the brain are involved in language switching: fMRI evidence from trilingual speakers. NeuroImage, 90(15), 348–359. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dijkstra, T., & Van Heuven, W. J. B. (1998). The BIA model and bilingual word recognition. In J. Grainger & A. M. Jacobs (Eds.), Localist connectionist approaches to human cognition (pp. 189–225). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ferré, P., Sánchez-Casas, R., & Guasch, M. (2006). Can a horse be a donkey? Semantic and form interference effects in translation recognition in early and late proficient and nonproficient Spanish-Catalan bilinguals. Language Learning, 56(4), 571–608. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Flowers, D. L., Jones, K., Noble, K., VanMeter, J., Zeffiro, T. A., Wood, F. B., & Eden, G. F. (2004). Attention to single letters activates left extrastriate cortex. NeuroImage, 21(3), 829–839. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Grill-Spector, K., Henson, R., & Martin, A. (2006). Repetition and the brain: Neural models of stimulus-specific effects. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(1), 14–23. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Grill-Spector, K., Kushnir, T., Edelman, S., Avidan, G., Itzchak, Y., & Malach, R. (1999). Differential processing of objects under various viewing conditions in the human lateral occipital complex. Neuron, 24(1), 187–203. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Grill-Spector, K., & Malach, R. (2001). fMR-adaptation: A tool for studying the functional properties of human cortical neurons. Acta Psychologica, 107(1–3), 293–321. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Guasch, M., Sánchez-Casas, R., Ferré, P., & García-Albea, J. E. (2008). Translation performance of beginning, intermediate and proficient Spanish-Catalan bilinguals: Effects of form and semantic relations. The Mental Lexicon, 3(3), 289–308. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hauk, O., Davis, M. H., Ford, M., Pulvermüller, F., Marslen-Wilson, W. D. (2006). The time course of visual word recognition as revealed by linear regression analysis of ERP data. NeuroImage, 30(4), 1383–1400. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Illes, J., Francis, W. S., Desmond, J. E., Gabrieli, J. D., Glover, G. H., Poldrack, R., Lee, C. J., & Wagner, A. D. (1999). Convergent cortical representation of semantic processing in bilinguals. Brain and Language, 70(3), 347–363. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kaplan, E., Goodglass, H., &Weintraub, S. (1983). The Boston naming test (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lea & Febiger.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kiyonaga, A., Korb, F. M., Lucas, J., Soto, D., & Egner, T. Dissociable causal roles for left and right parietal cortex in controlling attentional biases from the contents of working memory. (2014).NeuroImage, 100(15), 200–205. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kroll, J. F., & Stewart, E. (1994). Category interference in translation and picture naming: Evidence for asymmetric connections between bilingual memory representations. Journal of Memory and Language, 33(2), 149–174. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lobier, M., Peyrin, C., Le Bas, J-F., Valdois, S. (2012). Pre-orthographic character string processing and parietal cortex: A role for visual attention in reading? Neuropsychologica, 50, 2195–2204. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Marian, V., Shildkrot, Y., Blumenfeld, H. K., Kaushanskaya, M., Faroqi-Shah, Y., & Hirsch, J. (2007). Cortical activation during word processing in late bilinguals: similarities and differences as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 29(3), 247–265. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mechelli, A., Crinion, J. T., Long, S., Friston, K. J., Lambon Ralph, M. A., Patterson, K., McClelland, J. L., & Price, C. J. (2005). Dissociating reading processes on the basis of neuronal interactions. Journal of Cognitive Neurosicence, 17(11), 1753–1765. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mei, L., Xue, G., Lu, Z.-L., He, Q., Zhang, M., Xue, F., Chen, C., & Dong, Q. (2013). Orthographic transparency modulates the functional asymmetry in the fusiform cortex: An artificial language training study. Brain and Language, 125(2), 165–172. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Meschyan, G., & Hernandez, A. E. (2006). Impact of language proficiency and orthographic transparency on bilingual word reading: An fMRI investigation. NeuroImage, 29(4), 1135–1140. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nosarti, C., Mechelli, A., Green, D. W., & Price, C. J. (2010). The impact of second language learning on semantic and nonsemantic first language reading. Cerebral Cortex, 20(2), 315–327. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Park, H. R., Badzakova-Trajkov, G., & Waldie, K. E. (2012). Language lateralisation in late proficient bilinguals: A lexical decision fMRI study. Neuropsychologia, 50(5), 688–695. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sebastian, R., Kiran, S., & Sandberg, C. (2012). Semantic processing in Spanish–English bilinguals with aphasia. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 25(4), 240–262. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Szczepanski, S. M., Konen, C. S., Kastner, S. (2010). Mechanisms of spatial attention control in frontal and parietal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(1), 148–160. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Talamas, A., Kroll, J. F., & Dufour, R. (1999). From form to meaning: Stages in the acquisition of second-language vocabulary. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2(1), 45–58. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tan, L. H., & Perfetti, C. A. (1998). Phonological codes as early sources of constraint in reading Chinese: a review of current discoveries and theoretical accounts. Reading and Writing, 10(3), 165–220. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tan, L. H., Liard, A. R., Li, K., & Fox, P. T. (2005). Neuroanatomical correlates of phonological processing of Chinese characters and alphabetic words: A meta-analysis. Human Brain Mapping, 25(1), 83–91. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tarkiainen, A., Helenius, P., Hansen, P. C., Cornelissen, P. L., & Salmelin, R. (1999). Dynamics of letter string perception in the human occipitotemporal cortex. Brain, 122(11), 2119–2131. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Twomey, T., Waters, D., Price, C. J., Kherif, F., Woll, B., & MacSweeney, M. (2015). Identification of the regions involved in phonological assembly using a novel paradigm. Brain and Language, 150, 45–53. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tzeng, O. L. (2002). Current issues in learning to read Chinese. In W. Li, J. S. Gaffney, & J. L. Packard (Eds.), Chinese children’s reading acquisition (pp. 3–15). Dordrecht: Kluwer. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wheat, K. L., Cornelissen, P. L., Frost, S. J., and Hansen, P. C. (2010). During visual word recognition, phonology is accessed within 100 ms and may be mediated by a speed production code: evidence from magnetoencephalography. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(15), 5229–5233. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Beckett, Gulbahar H.
2023.
'Script effects as the hidden drive of the mind, cognition, and culture' Hye K. Pae (2020).
Sociolinguistic Studies 17:1-3
► pp. 253 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Pae, Hye K.
2020.
Neurolinguistic Evidence for Script Relativity. In
Script Effects as the Hidden Drive of the Mind, Cognition, and Culture [
Literacy Studies, 21],
► pp. 175 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 june 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.