Momenian Mohammad, Nilipour Reza, Samar Reza Ghafar, Cappa Stefano F, Golestani Narly
Laboratory for Communication Science, Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Department of Applied Linguistics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Speech Therapy, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Brain Lang. 2018 Oct;185:9-18. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2018.07.001. Epub 2018 Jul 7.
The Persian language can be considered to have a relatively more complex and combinatorial morpho-syntax than languages like Chinese and English. For example, the Persian verbal system is largely constituted of light verb constructions, in which light verbs are combined with specific items coming from other grammatical classes to generate entirely new verbal entities. This study was designed to examine the mediating effect of language-inherent properties related to morpho-syntax on activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG), a brain area involved in morpho-syntactic processing. To this end, 20 late Persian-English bilinguals were required to covertly generate verbs and nouns from object and action pictures, within a cued grammatical context. Consistent with predictions, the results of an ROI analysis revealed an interaction between task and language in BA 44 of the LIFG and its right homologue, with greater activation of this region during the production of Persian compared to English verbs. In contrast, there was greater activation of the BA 44 during the production of English compared to Persian nouns, consistent with the more effortful processing of their less proficient second language (English). The findings suggest that language-specific properties such as morpho-syntactic complexity can modulate the recruitment of Broca's area, over and above the more well-documented effects of language proficiency.
与中文和英文等语言相比，波斯语的形态句法可能被认为相对更为复杂且具有组合性。例如，波斯语动词系统主要由轻动词结构构成，其中轻动词与来自其他语法类别的特定词项相结合，以生成全新的动词实体。本研究旨在考察与形态句法相关的语言固有属性对左额下回（LIFG）激活的中介作用，左额下回是一个参与形态句法加工的脑区。为此，20名波斯语 - 英语晚期双语者被要求在有提示的语法语境中，从物体和动作图片中隐性生成动词和名词。与预测一致，感兴趣区（ROI）分析结果显示，在LIFG的44区及其右侧同源区域，任务与语言之间存在交互作用，与生成英语动词相比，生成波斯语动词时该区域激活更强。相反，与生成波斯语名词相比，生成英语名词时44区激活更强，这与他们对不太熟练的第二语言（英语）进行更费力的加工一致。研究结果表明，形态句法复杂性等语言特定属性能够调节布罗卡区的激活，这一作用超越了已有充分记载的语言熟练度的影响。
