scholarly journals Neuro-Cognitive Differences in Semantic Processing Between Native Speakers and Proficient Learners of Mandarin Chinese

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia-Ho Lai ◽  
Shu-Kai Hsieh ◽  
Chia-Lin Lee ◽  
Lily I-Wen Su ◽  
Te-Hsin Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Fusiform Gyrus ◽  
Chinese Adult ◽  
Semantic Judgment ◽  
Ventral Pathway

The present study aimed to investigate the neural mechanism underlying semantic processing in Mandarin Chinese adult learners, focusing on the learners who were Indo-European language speakers with advanced levels of proficiency in Mandarin Chinese. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging technique and a semantic judgment task to test 24 Mandarin Chinese adult learners (L2 group) and 26 Mandarin Chinese adult native speakers (L1 group) as a control group. In the task, participants were asked to indicate whether two-character pairs were related in meaning. Compared to the L1 group, the L2 group had greater activation in the bilateral occipital regions, including the fusiform gyrus and middle occipital gyrus, as well as the right superior parietal lobule. On the other hand, less activation in the bilateral temporal regions was found in the L2 group relative to the L1 group. Correlation analysis further revealed that, within the L2 group, increased activation in the left middle temporal gyrus/superior temporal gyrus (M/STG, BA 21) was correlated with higher accuracy in the semantic judgment task as well as better scores in the two vocabulary tests, the Assessment of Chinese character list for grade 3 to grade 9 (A39) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised. In addition, functional connectivity analysis showed that connectivity strength between the left fusiform gyrus and left ventral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG, BA 47) was modulated by the accuracy in the semantic judgment task in the L1 group. By contrast, this modulation effect was weaker in the L2 group. Taken together, our study suggests that Mandarin Chinese adult learners rely on greater recruitment of the bilateral occipital regions to process orthographic information to access the meaning of Chinese characters. Also, our correlation results provide convergent evidence that the left M/STG (BA 21) plays a crucial role in the storage of semantic knowledge for readers to access to conceptual information. Moreover, the connectivity results indicate that the left ventral pathway (left fusiform gyrus-left ventral IFG) is associated with orthographic-semantic processing in Mandarin Chinese. However, this semantic-related ventral pathway might require more time and language experience to be developed, especially for the late adult learners of Mandarin Chinese.

The Neural Substrate of Picture Naming

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 399-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Murtha ◽  
Howard Chertkow ◽  
Mario Beauregard ◽  
Alan Evans
Keyword(s):  
Picture Naming ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Semantic Network ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Fusiform Gyrus ◽  
Injection Technique ◽  
Semantic Judgment ◽  
Neural Substrate ◽  
Normal Males

A PET study of 10 normal males was carried out using the bolus H215O intravenous injection technique to examine the effects of picture naming and semantic judgment on blood flow. In a series of conditions, subjects (1) passively viewed flashing plus signs, (2) noted the occurrence of abstract patterns, (3) named animal pictures, or (4) carried out a semantic judgment on animal pictures. Anticipatory scans were carried out after the subjects were presented with the instructions but before they began the cognitive task, as they were passively viewing plus signs. Our results serve to clarify a number of current controversies regarding the neural substrate of picture naming. The results indicate that the fusiform gyrus is unlikely to be the region where low-level perceptual processing such as shape analysis is undertaken. In fact, our evidence suggests that activation of the fusiform gyrus is most likely related to visual perceptual semantic processing. In addition, the inferior/middle frontal lobe activity observed while performing the picture naming and semantic judgment tasks does not appear to be due to the effects of anticipation or preparation. Furthermore, there appears to be a set of regions (a semantic network) that becomes activated regardless of whether the subjects perform a picture naming or semantic judgment task. Finally, picture naming of animals did not activate either parietal regions or anterior inferior left temporal regions, regardless of what subtraction baseline was used.

scholarly journals Distinct activated cortical areas and volumes in Uygur-Chinese bilinguals

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Jiang ◽  
Li-Xia Yang ◽  
Lin Jia ◽  
Xin Shi ◽  
Hong Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Specific Pattern ◽  
Cortical Activation ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Semantic Judgment ◽  
Significant Difference

AbstractObjective: The aim of this study is to evaluate variations in cortical activation in early and late Uygur-Chinese bilinguals from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. Methodology: During a semantic judgment task with visual stimulation by a single Chinese or Uygur word, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed. The fMRI data regarding activated cortical areas and volumes by both languages were analyzed. Results: The first language (L1) and second language (L2) activated language-related hemispheric regions, including the left inferior frontal and parietal cortices, and L1 specifically activated the left middle temporal gyrus. For both L1 and L2, cortical activation was greater in the left hemisphere, and there was no significant difference in the lateralization index (LI) between the two languages (p > 0.05). Although the total activated cortical areas were larger in early than late bilinguals, the activation volumes were not significantly different. Conclusion: Activated brains areas in early and late fluent bilinguals largely overlapped. However, these areas were more scattered upon presentation of L2 than L1, and L1 had a more specific pattern of activation than L2. For both languages, the left hemisphere was dominant. We found that L2 proficiency level rather than age of acquisition had a greater influence on which brain areas were activated with semantic processing.

scholarly journals Can Word-Word Space Facilitate L2 Chinese Reading: Evidence From the Two Empirical Studies by Advanced L2 Learners of Mandarin Chinese

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824402110591
Author(s):  
Ken Chen ◽  
Lei Gu ◽  
Hongshan Zuo ◽  
Qiaoyan Bai
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Chinese Reading ◽  
Paper Test ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Teaching Text ◽  
Effective Role ◽  
Chinese Texts

The purpose of this article aims to analysis the effect of word-word space in written Chinese to advanced non-native speakers when they read and process Mandarin texts. The participants have performed one online reaction time experiment and another one offline pencil-paper test. The results indicate that the structure of word segmentation in written Chinese texts have play an effective role in sentences’ semantic processing, and the length and difficulty of sentences stimuli have also displayed significant function for their Chinese sentences processing. However, the results of offline test show that the combinational amount of segmental words have not affected the texts materials processed by advanced L2 participants. These results suggest that word boundary can facilitate L2 learners of Mandarin Chinese in processing text during their reading. Apart from theoretical implications, this article also proposes a new pedagogical approach to teaching text segmentation in Chinese, which can be useful in instructing Chinese as a second or foreign language.

scholarly journals The Neural Representations of Movement across Semantic Categories

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 791-807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Borghesani ◽  
Marianna Riello ◽  
Benno Gesierich ◽  
Valentina Brentari ◽  
Alessia Monti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Univariate Analysis ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Representational Content ◽  
Semantic Category ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Frontoparietal Network ◽  
Semantic Judgment

Previous evidence from neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies suggests functional specialization for tools and related semantic knowledge in a left frontoparietal network. It is still debated whether these areas are involved in the representation of rudimentary movement-relevant knowledge regardless of semantic domains (animate vs. inanimate) or categories (tools vs. nontool objects). Here, we used fMRI to record brain activity while 13 volunteers performed two semantic judgment tasks on visually presented items from three different categories: animals, tools, and nontool objects. Participants had to judge two distinct semantic features: whether two items typically move in a similar way (e.g., a fan and a windmill move in circular motion) or whether they are usually found in the same environment (e.g., a seesaw and a swing are found in a playground). We investigated differences in overall activation (which areas are involved) as well as representational content (which information is encoded) across semantic features and categories. Results of voxel-wise mass univariate analysis showed that, regardless of semantic category, a dissociation emerges between processing information on prototypical location (involving the anterior temporal cortex and the angular gyrus) and movement (linked to left inferior parietal and frontal activation). Multivoxel pattern correlation analyses confirmed the representational segregation of networks encoding task- and category-related aspects of semantic processing. Taken together, these findings suggest that the left frontoparietal network is recruited to process movement properties of items (including both biological and nonbiological motion) regardless of their semantic category.

scholarly journals The Analysis of Semantic Field in Persian-Speaking Patients With Wernicke’s Aphasia

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-262
Author(s):  
Omid Azad ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Semantic Field ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Semantic Judgment ◽  
Wernicke's Aphasia ◽  
Processing Abilities ◽  
Healthy Control ◽  
Almost All

Objectives: Wernicke’s aphasia is one of the most prominent focal brain deficits affecting the comprehension abilities of patients while preserving their production abilities. Although a lot of studies in different languages have been conducted to analyze the nature of this deficit, still some controversies exist in this regard. While some research studies attribute this defect to a performance problem, some research highlight competence deficit and hypothesize qualitative problems. This research, considering the lack of sufficient literature in Persian, tries to reconcile this controversy by investigating the nature of the semantic field in Persian-speaking patients with Wernicke’s aphasia and to compare their semantic processing abilities with those of healthy controls. Methods: In doing so, a semantic judgment task was administered to 10 patients with Wernicke’s aphasia and their age- and education-matched controls to recognize different semantic relations between a group of words whose meanings were related to each other in some way or another. Results: The results showed dissociation in the subjects’ performance. While patients with Wernicke’s aphasia had severe deficits in semantic judgment tasks, healthy control performed very well. This selective performance was also observed in different semantic pairs. Also, patients with Wernicke’s aphasia performed poorly in almost all classes of semantic pairs, but the severity of their problems was more prominent in certain semantic categories. Discussion: The findings, in line with a competence deficit hypothesis, suggest that linguistic items are processed in the mental lexicon as a semantic unit. Hence, linguistic items are categorized in a brain network correlating with each other based on different semantic relationships.

scholarly journals Corroborating behavioral evidence for the interplay of representational richness and semantic control in semantic word processing

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Bechtold ◽  
Christian Bellebaum ◽  
Paul Hoffman ◽  
Marta Ghio
Keyword(s):  
Word Processing ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Abstract Word ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Healthy Adults ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Contextual Cues ◽  
Semantic Judgment ◽  
Behavioral Evidence

AbstractThis study aimed to replicate and validate concreteness and context effects on semantic word processing. In Experiment 1, we replicated the behavioral findings of Hoffman et al. (Cortex 63,250–266, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2014.09.001, 2015) by applying their cueing paradigm with their original stimuli translated into German. We found concreteness and contextual cues to facilitate word processing in a semantic judgment task with 55 healthy adults. The two factors interacted in their effect on reaction times: abstract word processing profited more strongly from a contextual cue, while the concrete words’ processing advantage was reduced but still present. For accuracy, the descriptive pattern of results suggested an interaction, which was, however, not significant. In Experiment 2, we reformulated the contextual cues to avoid repetition of the to-be-processed word. In 83 healthy adults, the same pattern of results emerged, further validating the findings. Our corroborating evidence supports theories integrating representational richness and semantic control mechanisms as complementary mechanisms in semantic word processing.

scholarly journals Difficulties in Comprehending Affirmative and Negative Sentences: Evidence From Chinese Children With Reading Difficulties

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shenai Hu ◽  
Maria Vender ◽  
Gaetano Fiorin ◽  
Denis Delfitto
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Reading Difficulties ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Chinese Children ◽  
Behavioral Data ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Value Judgment ◽  
General Validity ◽  
Truth Value

Recent experimental results suggest that negation is particularly challenging for children with reading difficulties. This study looks at how young poor readers, speakers of Mandarin Chinese, comprehend affirmative and negative sentences as compared with a group of age-matched typical readers. Forty-four Chinese children were tested with a truth value judgment task. The results reveal that negative sentences were harder to process than affirmative ones, irrespective of the distinction between poor and typical readers. Moreover, poor readers performed worse than typical readers in comprehending sentences, regardless of whether they were affirmative or negative sentences. We interpret the results as (a) confirming the two-step simulation hypothesis, based on the result that the difficulty in processing negation has a general validity (persisting in pragmatically felicitous contexts), and (b) disconfirming that negation, as far as behavioral data are concerned, can be used as a reliable linguistic predictor of reading difficulties.

iCALL corpus: Mandarin Chinese spoken by non-native speakers of European descent

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy F. Chen ◽  
Rong Tong ◽  
Darren Wee ◽  
Peixuan Lee ◽  
Bin Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
European Descent

scholarly journals Lexicalized structural priming in second language online sentence comprehension

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hang Wei ◽  
Julie E. Boland ◽  
Jonathan Brennan ◽  
Fang Yuan ◽  
Min Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
First Language ◽  
Structural Priming ◽  
Chinese Adult ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
L1 And L2

Prior work has shown intriguing differences between first language (L1) and second language (L2) comprehension priming of relative clauses. We investigated English reduced relative clause priming in Chinese adult learners of English. Participants of different education levels read sentences in a self-paced, moving window paradigm. Critical sentences had a temporarily ambiguous reduced relative clause. Across lists, critical sentences were rotated, so that they occurred either as prime or as target, and had either the same or different verb as the critical sentence with which they were paired. Prime/target pairs were separated by several filler sentences, which never contained a relative clause. Mean reading times for the disambiguating region in the target sentences were faster than in the prime sentences, but only in the same-verb condition, not in the different-verb condition. This pattern of results is consistent with L1 comprehension priming research, suggesting that similar lexically specific mechanisms are involved in L1 and L2 comprehension priming of reduced relative clauses. These findings are in line with lexicalist accounts of sentence comprehension (e.g. MacDonald et al., 1994), according to which syntactic information is bound to specific words. In addition, these findings argue against theories that postulate fundamental differences in processing of L1 and L2 (e.g. Clahsen and Felser, 2006a, 2006b).

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