The Neural Structures Underlying Hierarchical Language Representations in Chinese-English Bilinguals
Poster No:
825
Submission Type:
Late-Breaking Abstract Submission
Authors:
Qiping Wang1, Xinping Pu2, Chengyao Qian2, Pingping Xin2, Junjie Wu2
Institutions:
1Beijing Normal University, Beijing, Beijing, 2Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, Tianjin
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
A fundamental question in bilingualism research is how bilinguals represent their two languages in a single brain. The Revised Hierarchical Model (Kroll & Stewart, 1994) proposes that bilinguals maintain "separate lexicons connected by shared concepts." Expanding on this framework, research on bilingual language control (e.g., Green, 1998) suggests that lexicons can be further divided into a language tag, specifying the language category, and a word form, encoding phonological or orthographic information. Together, these components constitute a hierarchical model of bilingual language representation. Despite its theoretical importance, neural evidence supporting such hierarchical representations in bilinguals remains limited.
Methods:
To address this gap, the present study recruited 24 Chinese-English unbalanced bilinguals to name pictures in either Chinese or English in monolingual contexts while their brain activity was recorded using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Representational Similarity Analysis (RSA) was applied using searchlight and region-of-interest (ROI) analyses to disentangle the hierarchical components of bilingual language representation in the brain.
Results:
The results revealed that: 1) Shared concepts were represented bilaterally in the occipitotemporal cortices; 2) the neural representation of language tags and word forms for the second language (L2) was more robust and engaged more extensive brain regions compared to the first language (L1). Specifically, L2 tags were identified in the left precentral and postcentral gyri, the left supplementary motor area (SMA)/superior frontal gyrus, and the left middle temporal gyrus through searchlight analysis, whereas L1 tags were detected only in the aforementioned left precentral and postcentral gyri through ROI analysis. L2 word forms were represented bilaterally in the precentral and postcentral gyri and extended to the superior temporal gyrus, while L1 word forms were detected in a smaller region of the left precentral and postcentral gyri through searchlight analysis, with weaker representation in the right precentral and postcentral gyri revealed by ROI analysis.
Conclusions:
These findings provide neural evidence for hierarchical language representations in bilinguals, demonstrating that greater neural resources are allocated to represent the language tags and word forms of their weaker language compared to their dominant language.
Language:
Speech Production 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Multivariate Approaches 2
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
BOLD fMRI
Keywords:
ADULTS
Data analysis
Language
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Abstract Information
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Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel? NOTE: Any human subjects studies without IRB approval will be automatically rejected.
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Provide references using APA citation style.
Kroll, J. F., & Stewart, E. (1994). Category interference in translation and picture naming: Evidence for asymmetric connections between bilingual memory representations. Journal of memory and language, 33(2), 149-174.
Xu, Y., Wang, X., Wang, X., Men, W., Gao, J. H., & Bi, Y. (2018). Doctor, teacher, and stethoscope: neural representation of different types of semantic relations. Journal of Neuroscience, 38(13), 3303-3317.