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Overlapping and distinct neural networks supporting novel word learning in bilinguals and monolinguals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2021

Iske Bakker-Marshall Open the ORCID record for Iske Bakker-Marshall [Opens in a new window] ,
Atsuko Takashima ,
Carla B. Fernandez ,
Gabriele Janzen ,
James M. McQueen Open the ORCID record for James M. McQueen [Opens in a new window]  and
Janet G. Van Hell
Iske Bakker-Marshall
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
Atsuko Takashima
Affiliation:
Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, The Netherlands Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Carla B. Fernandez
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University, Department of Psychology, USA Duke University, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Durham, USA
Gabriele Janzen
Affiliation:
Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, The Netherlands Radboud University, Behavioural Science Institute, The Netherlands
James M. McQueen
Affiliation:
Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, The Netherlands Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Janet G. Van Hell*
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University, Department of Psychology, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Janet G. van Hell, Pennsylvania State University, Department of Psychology, 414 Moore Building, University Park, PA16802, USA. E-mail: jgv3@psu.edu
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Abstract

This study investigated how bilingual experience alters neural mechanisms supporting novel word learning. We hypothesised that novel words elicit increased semantic activation in the larger bilingual lexicon, potentially stimulating stronger memory integration than in monolinguals. English monolinguals and Spanish–English bilinguals were trained on two sets of written Swahili–English word pairs, one set on each of two consecutive days, and performed a recognition task in the MRI-scanner. Lexical integration was measured through visual primed lexical decision. Surprisingly, no group difference emerged in explicit word memory, and priming occurred only in the monolingual group. This difference in lexical integration may indicate an increased need for slow neocortical interleaving of old and new information in the denser bilingual lexicon. The fMRI data were consistent with increased use of cognitive control networks in monolinguals and of articulatory motor processes in bilinguals, providing further evidence for experience-induced neural changes: monolinguals and bilinguals reached largely comparable behavioural performance levels in novel word learning, but did so by recruiting partially overlapping but non-identical neural systems to acquire novel words.

Keywords

bilingualismword learninglexical integrationfMRI
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , May 2021 , pp. 524 - 536
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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