Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Brain Res. 2020 Jul 1;1738:146794. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2020.146794. Epub 2020 Mar 28.
Logographic-logographic bilingualism is lacking in bilingual researches. Cantonese and Mandarin are two Chinese languages that belong to the logographic writing system and share the same set of Chinese characters. Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals employ logographic-logographic bilingualism, and thus provide a unique population for bilingual studies. In Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals, it remains unclear whether the second language (L2) phonological processing conforms to the assimilation or accommodation hypothesis and whether the brain mechanisms underlying Cantonese and Mandarin phonological processing are similar. Differential brain mechanisms of Mandarin as first language (L1) and L2 also needs to be clarified. Task-modality functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to explore these questions in Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals and native Mandarin speakers. Univariate analysis, activation similarity analysis, brain-behavioral analysis and psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis were conducted. Novel evidence for accommodation was observed in the L2 processing of Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals, indicating that small language distance leads to the accommodation of L2 processing, which is absolutely distinct to alphabetic bilingualism. We speculated that the role of language distance in the balance between assimilation and accommodation may be regulated by L1. Notably, we found Cantonese processing relied more on orthography-to-phonology mapping, phonological processing, language control and inhibition while Mandarin relied more on memory extraction. And Mandarin processing as L1 and L2 in our study are highly similar, suggesting the stability of brain regions processing Mandarin.
粤语-普通话双语者在双语研究中较为缺乏。粤语和普通话同属汉字书写系统，使用同一套汉字，是两种汉语。粤语-普通话双语者使用的是语素-语素双语，为双语研究提供了一个独特的群体。在粤语-普通话双语者中，第二语言（L2）的语音处理是否符合同化或顺应假说，以及粤语和普通话语音处理的大脑机制是否相似，仍不清楚。作为第一语言（L1）和 L2 的普通话的大脑机制也需要进一步阐明。任务模态功能磁共振成像（fMRI）被用于探索粤语-普通话双语者和普通话母语者的这些问题。进行了单变量分析、激活相似性分析、脑-行为分析和心理生理交互（PPI）分析。在粤语-普通话双语者的 L2 处理中观察到了顺应的新证据，表明小的语言距离导致了 L2 处理的顺应，这与字母式双语绝对不同。我们推测，语言距离在同化和顺应之间的平衡中的作用可能受到 L1 的调节。值得注意的是，我们发现粤语处理更多地依赖于语音到语音的映射、语音处理、语言控制和抑制，而普通话处理则更多地依赖于记忆提取。而且，我们研究中的普通话作为 L1 和 L2 非常相似，这表明了处理普通话的大脑区域的稳定性。
