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How do people process two languages in the brain?
In order to answer this question, I prepared 5 types of words, including two cross-linguistic words (interlingual homographs and cognates), 2 language-specific words (Chinese and Japanese), and pseudowords. In the first study, the Chinese-Japanese bilinguals needed to determine whether the stimuli belong to their first language (L1) or not.
Interestingly, the reaction time of IH is longer than CO and CC. From brain imaging results, bilinguals rely on the cognitive control areas, such as the bilateral inferior frontal gyri (IFG) and supplementary motor areas (SMA). These results suggest that bilinguals try to resolve the conflict between languages when facing interlingual homographs, even when processing L1. However, once the statistical threshold is decreased, SMA could also be observed from cognates. Do bilinguals need to resolve the conflicts between languages in the recognition of cognates, even though they share both forms and meanings between Chinese and Japanese? This issue will be discussed in the next paper.
Reference:
Hsieh, M., Jeong, H., Sasaki, Y., Lee, H., Kawata, H., Yokoyama, S., Sugiura, M., and Kawashima, R.
(2017). Neural correlates of bilingual language control during interlingual homographs in a
logogram writing system. Brain and Language, 174, 72-85.
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