Project E8: Mechanisms and representation in the bilingual lexicon

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. med. Christian Büchel
Research scientists: Annette Baumgärtner, Ph.D. (neurolinguist), Dr. Frédéric Isel (psychologist)
Research assistants: Johannes Thrän, Rodrigue Talla-Kuate

Topic

This project investigates the hypothesis that the two languages of bilinguals involve a common semantic-conceptual system. This hypothesis will be examined in early and late French-German bilinguals for both perception and production, using a new methodology in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

Research questions

Do the same neuronal populations support the processing of French and German words, which have the same meaning (e.g., maison - Haus)? Put differently, do the two lexicons use the same semantic system in word perception and production?
To what extent does age of acquisition (AOA) of L2 play a role in a hypothezised common semantic-conceptual processing of words in both languages, when proficiency is kept constant?

Methods

A series of priming-experiments examines the neuronal representation of word meanings in L1 and L2 using functional MRI. AOA of L2 will be systematically manipulated in highly proficient bilinguals (2 levels: group 1 = early bilinguals; group 2 = late bilinguals). To test the generalisability of the results the mode of of stimulus presentation will be varied systematically (i.e., visual, auditory, pictorial presentation).

Working hypotheses

Hypothesis 1: If AOA of L2 plays a role in semantic processing in bilinguals with similarly high proficiency, then different neuronal populations should be active in a semantic task in early but not in late bilinguals.
Hypothesis 2: If not, then the same neuronal populations should be active in a semantic task in early as well as in late bilinguals.

List of relevant publications

Baumgaertner A, Weiller C, Büchel C (2002a). Event-related fMRI reveals cortical sites involved in contextual sentence integration. Neuroimage 16: 736-45.
Büchel C, Coull JT, Friston KJ (1999). The predictive value of changes in effective connectivity for human learning. Science 283: 1538-41.
Büchel C, Friston KJ (1997). Modulation of connectivity in visual pathways by attention:Cortical interactions evaluated with structural equation modelling and fMRI. Cerebral Cortex 7: 768-78.
Büchel C, Friston KJ (1998a). Dynamic changes in effective connectivity characterized by variable parameter regression and Kalman filtering. Human Brain Mapping 6: 403-8.
Büchel C, Holmes AP, Rees G, Friston KJ (1998b). Characterizing stimulus-response functions using nonlinear regressors in parametric fMRI experiments. Neuroimage 8: 140-8.
Büchel C, Price C, Friston K (1998c). A multimodal language region in the ventral visual pathway. Nature 394: 274-7.
Friston KJ, Büchel C (2000). Attentional modulation of effective connectivity from V2 to V5/MT in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 97: 7591-6.
Friston KJ, Holmes AP, Price CJ, Büchel C, Worsley KJ (1999). Multisubject fMRI studies and conjunction analyses. Neuroimage 10: 385-96.
Wise RJ, Howard D, Mummery CJ, Fletcher P, Leff A, Büchel C, Scott SK (2000). Noun imageability and the temporal lobes. Neuropsychologia 38: 985-94.
Wise RJ, Greene J, Büchel C, Scott SK (1999). Brain regions involved in articulation. Lancet 353: 1057-61.

Complementary literature

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Chee M. W. L., Caplan, D., Soon, C. S., Sriram, N., Tan, E. W. L., Thiel, T., & Weekes, B. (1999a). Processing of visually presented sentences in Mandarin and English studied with fMRI. Neuron 23: 127-137.
Chee M. W. L., Tan, E., & Thiel, T. (1999b). Mandarin and English single word processing studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Journal of Neuroscience 19: 3050-56.
Chee, M. W. L., Soon, C. S., & Lee, H. L. (2003). Common and segregated neuronal networks for different languages revealed using functional magnetic resonance adaptation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 15: 85-97.
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Wartenburger, I., Heekeren, H. R., Abutalebi, J., Cappa, S. F., Villringer, A., & Perani, D.
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