UMR 1253, iBrain, University of Tours, Inserm, Tours, France; Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Laboratory CLILLAC-ARP - URP3967, Université de Paris, Paris, France; Laboratory Models, Dynamics, Corpus, CNRS/University Paris Nanterre, Paris Lumières, France.
Laboratory CLILLAC-ARP - URP3967, Université de Paris, Paris, France.
Neuropsychologia. 2021 Jun 18;156:107831. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107831. Epub 2021 Mar 19.
Second language (L2) learners frequently encounter persistent difficulty in perceiving certain non-native sound contrasts, i.e., a phenomenon called "phonological deafness". However, if extensive L2 experience leads to neuroplastic changes in the phonological system, then the capacity to discriminate non-native phonemic contrasts should progressively improve. Such perceptual changes should be attested by modifications at the neurophysiological level. We designed an EEG experiment in which the listeners' perceptual capacities to discriminate second language phonemic contrasts influence the processing of lexical-semantic violations. Semantic congruency of critical words in a sentence context was driven by a phonemic contrast that was unique to the L2, English (e.g.,/ɪ/-/i:/, ship - sheep). Twenty-eight young adult native speakers of French with intermediate proficiency in English listened to sentences that contained either a semantically congruent or incongruent critical word (e.g., The anchor of theship/*sheepwas let down) while EEG was recorded. Three ERP effects were found to relate to increasing L2 proficiency: (1) a left frontal auditory N100 effect, (2) a smaller fronto-central phonological mismatch negativity (PMN) effect and (3) a semantic N400 effect. No effect of proficiency was found on oscillatory markers. The current findings suggest that neuronal plasticity in the human brain allows for the late acquisition of even hard-wired linguistic features such as the discrimination of phonemic contrasts in a second language. This is the first time that behavioral and neurophysiological evidence for the critical role of neural plasticity underlying L2 phonological processing and its interdependence with semantic processing has been provided. Our data strongly support the idea that pieces of information from different levels of linguistic processing (e.g., phonological, semantic) strongly interact and influence each other during online language processing.
第二语言（L2）学习者经常在感知某些非母语语音差异方面遇到持续的困难，即所谓的“语音聋”现象。然而，如果广泛的 L2 经验导致语音系统的神经可塑性变化，那么区分非母语语音差异的能力应该会逐渐提高。这种感知变化应该在神经生理水平上得到证明。我们设计了一个 EEG 实验，在这个实验中，听众区分第二语言语音差异的感知能力会影响词汇语义违规的处理。句子语境中关键单词的语义一致性是由 L2（英语）的独特语音差异驱动的（例如，/ɪ/-/i:/，ship-sheep）。28 名年轻的成年法语母语者，他们的英语水平处于中级，听包含语义一致或不一致的关键单词的句子（例如，The anchor of the ship/*sheep was let down），同时记录 EEG。发现三个 ERP 效应与 L2 熟练度的提高有关：（1）左额部听觉 N100 效应，（2）较小的额中央语音不匹配负波（PMN）效应，（3）语义 N400 效应。在振荡标记物上没有发现熟练程度的影响。目前的发现表明，人类大脑中的神经可塑性允许对即使是硬连线的语言特征（例如，第二语言中的语音差异区分）进行后期习得。这是首次提供行为和神经生理学证据，证明神经可塑性在第二语言语音处理及其与语义处理的相互依存关系中起着关键作用。我们的数据强烈支持这样一种观点，即来自不同语言处理层次（例如，语音、语义）的信息在在线语言处理过程中会强烈相互作用和影响。
