Poster B26, Tuesday, August 20, 2019, 3:15 – 5:00 pm, Restaurant Hall
The role of motor system in action-related language comprehension in L1 and L2: an fMRI study
Lili Tian1,2,3, Hongjun Chen1, Wei Zhao4, Jianlin Wu5, Qing Zhang5, Ailing De5, Paavo Leppänen2, Fengyu Cong4, Tiina Parviainen2,6;1School of Foreign Languages, Dalian University of Technology, 2Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, 3Language and Brain Research Center, Sichuan International Studies University, 4Department of Biomedical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, 5Department of Radiology, Affiliated Zhongshan Hospital of Dalian University, 6Centre for Interdisciplinary Brain Research, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
The way that language is coded and decoded in our brain has long been an intriguing topic. For a long time, language has been studied from a modular perspective, claiming that language processing is not associated with other cognitive modules, such as sensory-motor system. However, the framework of embodied cognition has posed challenges to the modular view by suggesting that meaning-retrieval involves motor system. To date, despite of extensive research exploring language-motor coupling, the issue that to what extent motor system is engaged in different linguistic circumstances has rarely been discussed. To explore the graded nature of motor engagement in language processing, the present study, by adopting fMRI, has investigated neural activations of motor and language ROIs and functional connectivity between them in processing languages with different abstraction degree (literal, metaphorical, abstract) in both L1 (native language) and L2 (second language). A selected number of 29 Chinese-English speakers participated in the experiment, with Chinese as their native language and English as the second language. The study consists of L1 Experiment and L2 Experiment, where a one-factorial within-subject design is used. Phrase type is manipulated in the two experiments, including literal, metaphorical and abstract conditions. Action-related (related to hand or arm) verbs are embedded in both literal (抓住皮球, zhuā zhù pí qiú, which means “catch the ball”) and metaphorical phrases (抓住意思, zhuā zhù yì sī, which means “catch the meaning”). The same meaning conveyed by metaphorical phrase is connoted in abstract one (理解意思, lǐ jiě yì sī, which means “understand the meaning”). Stimuli in L1 are virtually semantic-correspondent to those of L2, with some exceptions due to the non-existence of some English metaphorical expressions in Chinese. Results showed an attenuated motor activation from literal to metaphorical to abstract language in both L1 and L2. Besides, contrast analysis between L1 and L2 showed overall greater activations of motor ROIs in L2. Through investigating neural activations and functional connectivity of motor and language systems, the present study has shed light on the gradations of motor system engagement in language processing, which will bring novel insight to our understanding of the neurobiological basis of language processing.
Themes: Meaning: Lexical Semantics, Multilingualism
Method: Functional Imaging