Neural Plasticity After Brief Cantonese Tone Training
Poster No:
822
Submission Type:
Late-Breaking Abstract Submission
Authors:
Yuqin Shu1, Ran Tao1, Kaile Zhang1, Gaode Zhang1, Gang Peng1
Institutions:
1The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Lexical tones are used to differentiate word meanings despite syllables having the same consonants and vowels (Peng, 2006; Peng et al., 2014). Mastering the ability to differentiate tones is critical in learning tone languages. This is a challenging task for second language (L2) learners (Zhang et al., 2018), especially those who do not have a tonal language background (Chandrasekaran et al., 2010). Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying successful tone learning can provide insights into L2 phonological acquisition and inform language teaching approaches.
Methods:
We recruited 16 non-tonal language speakers (after 3 dropouts from initial 19) to participate in a Cantonese tone training program. Participants underwent four training sessions within one week (approximately 20 minutes each), involving tone identification tasks with feedback using a perceptual learning paradigm. Brain activation before and after training was measured using fMRI (TR = 1500ms including 700 ms silence, TE = 38 ms, TA = 3:02 min, voxel size = 2 mm³) with three task settings: passive listening (PAS), silent repetition (REP), and word identification (WID). Participants' structural T1 images (TR = 2500 ms, TE = 2.16 ms, TA = 3:22 min, voxel size = 1 mm³) were also obtained and used in preprocessing. MRI data were preprocessed with a standard pipeline, including realignment, coregistration functional data to structure data, normalization, and smooth. The preprocessed fMRI were further analyzed using both univariate methods and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) with a searchlight approach and cross-task validation procedure (Feng et al., 2018).
Results:
Behaviorally, participants showed significant improvement in tone discrimination abilities (t(15) = -5.54, p < 0.001, Cohen's d = -1.385). In the univariate activation analysis, we observed strong activation over extended brain regions, including bilateral temporal lobes for all tasks in both pre- and post-training fMRI scanning sessions. However, when comparing post-training with pre-training activation, no significant differences were found (cluster-level FDR correction, p < 0.05). MVPA revealed that no brain region could reliably classify the six tones in the pre-training session. However, after training, bilateral middle occipital gyri, especially the lingual gyri significantly classified the six tones (cluster-level FDR correction, p < 0.05).
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates that a brief four-session training on tone identification within one week can effectively enable non-tonal language speakers to differentiate Cantonese tones. The neural plasticity associated with this learning was not evident in activation magnitude changes but was captured by multivariate analysis, highlighting the sensitivity of pattern-based approaches in detecting learning-induced neural changes. The emergence of bilateral middle occipital gyri, especially the lingual gyri in classifying Cantonese tone categories with high sensitivity, indicates potential visual imagery strategies in tone learning and processing. This pattern mirrors our previous findings in native Cantonese speakers, who similarly recruit visual cortex regions (in addition to the temporal-parietal regions) for tone categorization, suggesting comparable neural mechanisms across both native and non-native speakers. These findings provide insights into the neural mechanisms of L2 phonological acquisition and suggest that even short-term training can induce measurable changes in neural representations of speech sounds.
Language:
Speech Perception 1
Learning and Memory:
Learning and Memory Other 2
Keywords:
FUNCTIONAL MRI
Language
Learning
Multivariate
Plasticity
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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2. Feng, et al. (2018). Task-General and Acoustic-Invariant Neural Representation of Speech Categories in the Human Brain. Cerebral Cortex, 28(9), 3241–3254. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhx195
3. Peng (2006). Temporal and tonal aspects of Chinese syllables: A corpus-based comparative study of mandarin and cantonese. In Journal of Chinese Linguistics (Vol. 34, Issue 1, pp. 134–154).
4. Peng, et al. (2014). Tone Perception. In Oxford Handbook of Chinese Linguistics (pp. 516–527).
5. Zhang, et al. (2018). The effect of speech variability on tonal language speakers’ second language lexical tone learning. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(OCT), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01982