Bartolotti James, Bradley Kailyn, Hernandez Arturo E, Marian Viorica
Northwestern University, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
University of Houston, Department of Psychology, 3695 Cullen Boulevard, Houston, TX 77204, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2017 Apr;98:130-138. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.04.007. Epub 2016 Apr 8.
Experience with multiple languages has unique effects on cortical structure and information processing. Differences in gray matter density and patterns of cortical activation are observed in lifelong bilinguals compared to monolinguals as a result of their experience managing interference across languages. Monolinguals who acquire a second language later in life begin to encounter the same type of linguistic interference as bilinguals, but with a different pre-existing language architecture. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the beginning stages of second language acquisition and cross-linguistic interference in monolingual adults. We found that after English monolinguals learned novel Spanish vocabulary, English and Spanish auditory words led to distinct patterns of cortical activation, with greater recruitment of posterior parietal regions in response to English words and of left hippocampus in response to Spanish words. In addition, cross-linguistic interference from English influenced processing of newly-learned Spanish words, decreasing hippocampus activity. Results suggest that monolinguals may rely on different memory systems to process a newly-learned second language, and that the second language system is sensitive to native language interference.
掌握多种语言的经历对大脑皮层结构和信息处理有着独特的影响。与单语者相比，终身双语者由于在处理跨语言干扰方面的经历，在灰质密度和皮层激活模式上存在差异。成年后习得第二语言的单语者开始遇到与双语者相同类型的语言干扰，但他们之前的语言结构不同。本研究使用功能磁共振成像来探索成年单语者第二语言习得和跨语言干扰的初始阶段。我们发现，英语单语者学习了新的西班牙语词汇后，英语和西班牙语听觉词汇会导致不同的皮层激活模式，对英语词汇的反应更多地激活后顶叶区域，对西班牙语词汇的反应则更多地激活左海马体。此外，来自英语的跨语言干扰影响了新学西班牙语词汇的处理，降低了海马体的活动。结果表明，单语者可能依赖不同的记忆系统来处理新学的第二语言，并且第二语言系统对母语干扰很敏感。
