Task 6

Question 1

What is the function of the Broca’s area?

Answer 1

Production of speech

Question 2

What is the function of the Wernicke’s area?

Answer 2

Comprehension of written and spoken language

Question 3

Where is the Broca’s area located in the brain?

Answer 3

Inferior Frontal Gyrus (left hemisphere)

Question 4

Where is the Wernicke’s area located in the brain?

Answer 4

Superior temporal gyrus

Question 5

How does age affect the neural organization of language learning?

Answer 5

When a second language is acquired early in life, the second language area activates the same areas as the first language (Broca and Wernicke). That is speech production and comprehension of speech do not differ when it comes to their neural underpinnings.

However, when second language is acquired later in life then only comprehension of speech is underpinned by the Wernicke’s area (the same as first language). In contrast, production of speech for the second language utilizes an adjacent centre in the Broca’s area. So the production of speech for the two languages are underpinned by differing areas in the Broca’s area.

Question 6

What tasks were used in Kim’s study when investigating bilingualism?

Answer 6

Sentence generation task where participants had to describe specific events that occured in the previous day, either morning, afternoon, or night, in one of their spoken language. This was done silently and before the FMRI scans.

Question 7

Describe the sample used in Kim’s study

Answer 7

6 early bilinguals who were exposed to two languages during infancy, and 6 late bilinguals who were exposed to a second language in early adulthood

Question 8

How does experience affect the neural organization of language learning?

Answer 8

Neville et al.
* Experience with ASL can lead to right hemisphere specialization due to the need for visuospatial decoding.
* Early acquisition of oral language can lead to a larger left anterior region during ASL
* Native language regardless of modality activates the left hemisphere.

Conboy & Mills
* Dominant vs. non-dominant words = different patterns of neural activity in the later asymmetry of early positive component (P100)
* More left frontal, anterior-temporal regions for dominant language
* More left P100 for high producers vs. bilateral for low producers

Question 9

What were the aims of Conboy’s study?

Answer 9

To investigate whether the neural underpinnings of language in bilingual toddlers and investigating the role of experience in these brain systems.

Question 10

Describe the method and procedures used by Conboy to investigate the role of experience on development of language-relevant brain systems in bilingual toddlers.

Answer 10

19-22 month old who were exposed to both English and Spanish before 6 months.
Parents described the language exposure of the infants. Infants were exposed to each language for 10 hours every week.

Their dominant language were determined and so were their total conceptual vocabulary (total lexical conceptual development).

They did a picture comprehension task where comprehension of known words were investigated

Question 11

What task was used in Conboy’s study>

Answer 11

Picture pointing task. Children sat on their parent’s lap and watched moving puppets while listening to words from a speaker. They had to point to known words. ERP were measured.

Question 12

What were the results in relation to P100 from Conboy’s study?

Answer 12

P100 was the same for both dominant and non dominant language for both groups of children. It was larger over the left temporo-parietal sites for dominant language, especially for the higer TCV group. There were no asymmetry for the lower TCV group

Question 13

What are the implications for the results regarding the P100?

Answer 13

Both groups of children can automatically detect words from both of their languages, especially for their dominant language

Question 14

What was the results for the N200-400?

Answer 14

• This was larger to known vs. unknown words.
• Their effects for dominant language were larger over right hemisphere at frontal and anterior-temporal sites. No asymmetry for non-dominant.
• Dominant language = more right at frontal sites

Broad distribution for known & unknown in dominant language.

Question 15

Describe the characteristic and function of the P100

Answer 15

Positive deflection at 50-180ms after stimulus onset. Involved in automatic processing of stimuli (e.g. detection of words).

Question 16

Describe the characteristic and function of the N200-400

Answer 16

Negative deflection at 400ms post stimulus.
Lexical-semantic processing for words and sentences. More pronounced when words are semantically unfamiliar or unexpected.
N400 amp is larger for pseudo words than real words, nonwords do not evoke N400.

Question 17

Describe the N600-900

Answer 17

Negative deflection at 600-900ms involved in detection of syntactice violation and complex sentence.

It is also called syntactic positive shift

Question 18

How do the learning structure modality influence development of language networks in the brain?

Answer 18

• Processing of native language (ASL vs. English) in all groups = left hemisphere activation
• Early acquisition of oral language influences organization of anterior areas for ASL (as seen in native signers’ larger anterior in left hemisphere).
• Deaf subjects & native signers recruit right temporal hemispheres due to the need for visuo decoding. – right plays a role in modality

Question 19

Who were the three groups of subjects in Neville’s study?

Answer 19

Hearing subjects
Deaf subjects
Hearing native signers

Question 20

What were the two tasks used in Neville’s study?

Answer 20

English runs: silent reading of declarative sentences and consonant strings, presented one word/consonent on a screen

ASL runs: film of native deaf signer producing sentences in ASL or non-signers gesturing similarly to ASL

Question 21

What brain regions were activated for each group during the written English task?

Answer 21

Normal hearing = left hemisphere asymmetry (inferior frontal, superior temporal sulcus posterior, andgular gyrus) + DLPFC, anterior and middle STS - language processing and memory

Deaf subjects = right hemisphere (middle & posterior temporo-parietal)

Native signers = left hemisphere (anterior language areas and weaker posterior areas

Question 22

Which brain areas were activated during the ASL for each group?

Answer 22

Normal hearing: no differences in activation

Deaf subjects: left & right hemisphere
- Broca’s and Wernicke;s area
- FLPFC, inferior precentral sulcus, anterior STS (similar to that of hearing when processing English)
- RH : superior temporal lobe, angular region, inferior PFC

Native signers: left and right
- left Broca, DLPFC, precentral sulcus, Wernick, angular gyrus

Question 23

How does multiple languages affect the brain?

Answer 23

Kim et al.
* Mediated by age: early acquisition of second language = same Broca’s area activated for both native and second language. Late acquisition: two languages are underpinned by different areas in language areas.
Conboy & Mills
* dominant language is more left laterized especially in the frontal and anterior-temporal regions.
Werker & Byers-Heinlein
* Known words from dominant language are strongly laterized.

Question 24

Explain how bilingual individuals discriminate language

Answer 24

• bilingual infants commence the process of language acquisition by separating the languages from the start
• They use phonetic characteristics (e.g. rhythm). Rhythm = stress-timed (e.g. English, German), syllable-timed (French, Spanish), and mora-timed (e.g. Japanese).
• They also use mouth movement to discriminate language

Question 25

Explain how bilingual individuals set up sound systems

Answer 25

• Phonetic segment = smallest unit in language (consonant, vowel sounds that make up syllables and words)
• bilingual infants are able to discriminate vowel and consonant distinctions in each of their languages by the end of the first year of life
• differences in the amount of exposure to each language can have consequences for language learning

Question 26

Explain how bilingual individuals recognize words and learn words

Answer 26

• Infants growing up bilingual are faced with the task of learning two sets of phonological categories as well as two sets of linguistic labels
• bilinguals notice the incorrect pairing from 20 months of age compared to monolinguals who notice it at 17 months
• bilingual infants aged 19–22 months revealed characteristic ERPs to known words in both languages, but the ERPs to known words from the dominant language were different in form and latency from the ERPs to known words from the nondominant language and were strongly lateralized only in response to known words from the dominant language – differ from monolinguals

Question 27

How can word learning be tested in infants?

Answer 27

Habituation to repeated pairings of words and objects
Test phase: one trial is correct where the word matches the object, but in the incorrect trial they do not match.
To show that they have learned the pairings, they should look longer at the incorrect pairing.

Question 28

What is the difference between monolinguals and bilinguals in the word learning test?

Answer 28

Monolinguals can detect incorrect pairing (word learning) at 17 months
Bilinguals can do so at 20 months