Second language (L2) learners frequently encounter persistent difficulty in perceiving certain non-native sound contrasts, i.e., a phenomenon called "phonological deafness". However, if extensive L2 experience leads to neuroplastic changes in the phonological system, then the capacity to discriminate non-native phonemic contrasts should progressively improve. Such perceptual changes should be attested by modifications at the neurophysiological level. We designed an EEG experiment in which the listeners' perceptual capacities to discriminate second language phonemic contrasts influence the processing of lexical-semantic violations. Semantic congruency of critical words in a sentence context was driven by a phonemic contrast that was unique to the L2, English (e.g.,/ɪ/-/i:/, ship - sheep). Twenty-eight young adult native speakers of French with intermediate proficiency in English listened to sentences that contained either a semantically congruent or incongruent critical word (e.g., The anchor of theship/*sheepwas let down) while EEG was recorded. Three ERP effects were found to relate to increasing L2 proficiency: (1) a left frontal auditory N100 effect, (2) a smaller fronto-central phonological mismatch negativity (PMN) effect and (3) a semantic N400 effect. No effect of proficiency was found on oscillatory markers. The current findings suggest that neuronal plasticity in the human brain allows for the late acquisition of even hard-wired linguistic features such as the discrimination of phonemic contrasts in a second language. This is the first time that behavioral and neurophysiological evidence for the critical role of neural plasticity underlying L2 phonological processing and its interdependence with semantic processing has been provided. Our data strongly support the idea that pieces of information from different levels of linguistic processing (e.g., phonological, semantic) strongly interact and influence each other during online language processing.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107831 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Impact of High- and Low-Pass Acoustic Filtering on Audiovisual Speech Redundancy and Benefit in Children.
Ear Hear
December 2024
Center for Hearing Research, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
Objectives: To investigate the influence of frequency-specific audibility on audiovisual benefit in children, this study examined the impact of high- and low-pass acoustic filtering on auditory-only and audiovisual word and sentence recognition in children with typical hearing. Previous studies show that visual speech provides greater access to consonant place of articulation than other consonant features and that low-pass filtering has a strong impact on perception on acoustic consonant place of articulation. This suggests visual speech may be particularly useful when acoustic speech is low-pass filtered because it provides complementary information about consonant place of articulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAssessing serial recall as a measure of artificial grammar learning.
Front Psychol
December 2024
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Introduction: Implicit statistical learning is, by definition, learning that occurs without conscious awareness. However, measures that putatively assess implicit statistical learning often require explicit reflection, for example, deciding if a sequence is 'grammatical' or 'ungrammatical'. By contrast, 'processing-based' tasks can measure learning without requiring conscious reflection, by measuring processes that are facilitated by implicit statistical learning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUsing the Mismatch Negativity to Evaluate Hearing Aid Directional Enhancement Based on Multistream Architecture.
Ear Hear
December 2024
Office of Research in Clinical Amplification, WS Audiology, Lisle, Illinois, USA.
Objectives: To evaluate whether hearing aid directivity based on multistream architecture (MSA) might enhance the mismatch negativity (MMN) evoked by phonemic contrasts in noise.
Design: Single-blind within-subjects design. Fifteen older adults (mean age = 72.
Encoding and establishing a new second-language (L2) phonological category is notoriously difficult. This is particularly true for phonological contrasts that do not exist in the learners' native language (L1). Phonological categories that also exist in the L1 do not seem to pose any problems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEarly influence of language experience in non-native speech perception: Discrimination of three-way Thai stop contrasts by Korean and Japanese infants.
Infant Behav Dev
December 2024
RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Japan; Waseda University, Japan; Duke University, USA.
Article Synopsis
- Young infants initially can differentiate sounds from various languages, supporting the perceptual narrowing hypothesis, which suggests they become less sensitive to non-native phonemes as they grow.
- This study investigated how 4-6 month-old Korean and Japanese infants respond to specific Thai phoneme contrasts, specifically looking at their ability to discriminate between different stop sounds based on voice onset time (VOT).
- Findings revealed that Korean infants were sensitive to the pre-voiced vs. voiceless contrast, while Japanese infants were better at distinguishing the voiceless vs. voiceless aspirated sounds, highlighting significant differences in language input's impact on infants' phoneme discrimination abilities.
Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!