28th International Congress of Psychology August 8 ... - U-netSURF

4065.1 Neural processes involved with perception and learning of difficult second-language
phonetic contrasts, D.E. Callan, ATR International, Kyoto, Japan
The English /r-l/ phonetic contrast is extremely difficult for native Japanese speakers who learned
English as a second-language after childhood. After extensive perceptual identification training
long lasting improvement in identification performance can be attained. A model is proposed
implicating the use of articulatory-to-auditory and articulatory-to-orosensory mappings to
facilitate perceptual identification under conditions in which the phonetic contrast is ambiguous.
We conducted fMRI experiments investigating the perception and learning of difficult second
language phonetic contrasts. The obtained results are consistent with the hypothesis that forward
articulatory-to-auditory/orosensory mappings, that predict auditory consequences for production
of phonemes to be identified, are used to facilitate perception by constraining phoneme selection
given ongoing auditory input.
4065.2 Does language affect the neural basis of speech perception? A comparison of English
and Mandarin speakers, S. Scott, University College London, London, UK
The perceptual processing of speech depends initially on temporal lobe auditory and multimodal
cortex. neural basis of intelligible speech for English speakers listening to English, and Mandarin
speakers listening to Mandarin. While the responses for intelligible speech are left lateralised in
English, intelligible Mandarin is associated with extensive, bilateral responses in the temporal
lobes. There is a common system for intelligible speech in both languages. Regions specific to
Mandarin are present in left and right superior temporal cortex; there are no regions specific to
English. Normal speech perception engages temporal lobe regions that may be either independent
of or dependent upon the specific acoustic and linguistic structure of the native language.
4065.3 Brain processing of nouns and verbs by Chinese-English bilinguals, L.H. Tan, The
University of Hong Kong, China
A general finding in English seems to be that verbs are represented in left prefrontal region and
nouns in temporal-occipital regions. Functional MRI studies with Chinese, however, have
indicated that Chinese nouns and verbs activate a wide range of overlapping brain areas, without a
significant difference. In this paper I will report on our recent fMRI findings that in
Chinese-English bilinguals, Chinese nouns and verbs activate a common neuroanatomical circuit,
whereas English nouns and verbs provoke different neural networks weighted by word category.
Our findings agree with the recent proposal that language experience shapes neural systems of
reading and speaking.
4065.4 Common and segregated neuronal networks for different languages revealed using
functional magnetic resonance adaptation, M.W.L. Chee 1 , C.S. Soon 2 , H.L. Lee 2 , 1 Singapore
General Hospital, Singapore; 2 Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, SingHealth, Singapore
Word repetition within and across languages was studied in English-Chinese bilinguals who read
rapidly presented word-pairs while undergoing fMRI. Lower signal was observed when the second
word in a pair was shared meaning with the first. This occurred in the English-only and
Mixed-Languages conditions. Repetition-induced reductions in signal occurred in both types of
conditions. Thus part of the semantic neuronal networks serving English and Chinese is shared.
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