The aim of the present study was to investigate the neurofunctional bases of orthographic and lexical processing by considering the role of proficiency, exposure and age of acquisition of multiple languages in polyglots. ERPs were recorded from 30 scalp sites in healthy right-handed professional simultaneous interpreters with an excellent command of Italian, English and German. Both RTs and electrophysiological measures indicated a difference in brain activation between Italian and non-native languages as early as 200 ms post-stimulus at left lateral-occipital scalp area (probably corresponding to the Visual Word Form Area). The same area was also very sensitive to word familiarity, eliciting larger N2 and N3 components to words than pseudo-words, with larger effects for languages learned earlier in life. The analysis of ERP responses to L3 words also allowed us to investigate the role of proficiency by comparing two subgroups of interpreters: very fluent and not much fluent in German. The results showed a strong effect of proficiency on the amplitude of the anterior Lexical Processing Negativity (LPN: 300 – 500 ms), which was much more negative to pseudo-words than words in proficient compared to low-proficient interpreters. The analysis of LPN also showed that while real words evoked a very similar response in interpreters (regardless of language), pseudo-words were very sensitive to the age of acquisition of the latter, eliciting much larger responses to L1 words and much smaller to L3 words (compared to L2 ones).
Proverbio, A., Adorni, R., Del Zotto, M., Zani, A. (2005). The effect of age of acquisition and proficiency on language-related brain activation in interpreters: an ERP study. In Abstracts of Papers to be Presented at the Forty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research [10.1111/j.1469-8986.2005.00316.x].
The effect of age of acquisition and proficiency on language-related brain activation in interpreters: an ERP study
PROVERBIO, ALICE MADO;ADORNI, ROBERTA;
2005
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to investigate the neurofunctional bases of orthographic and lexical processing by considering the role of proficiency, exposure and age of acquisition of multiple languages in polyglots. ERPs were recorded from 30 scalp sites in healthy right-handed professional simultaneous interpreters with an excellent command of Italian, English and German. Both RTs and electrophysiological measures indicated a difference in brain activation between Italian and non-native languages as early as 200 ms post-stimulus at left lateral-occipital scalp area (probably corresponding to the Visual Word Form Area). The same area was also very sensitive to word familiarity, eliciting larger N2 and N3 components to words than pseudo-words, with larger effects for languages learned earlier in life. The analysis of ERP responses to L3 words also allowed us to investigate the role of proficiency by comparing two subgroups of interpreters: very fluent and not much fluent in German. The results showed a strong effect of proficiency on the amplitude of the anterior Lexical Processing Negativity (LPN: 300 – 500 ms), which was much more negative to pseudo-words than words in proficient compared to low-proficient interpreters. The analysis of LPN also showed that while real words evoked a very similar response in interpreters (regardless of language), pseudo-words were very sensitive to the age of acquisition of the latter, eliciting much larger responses to L1 words and much smaller to L3 words (compared to L2 ones).
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