Neural substrates of bilingual processing in a logographic writing system: An fMRI study in Chinese Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals

Ma, Jiyong; Wu, Yujia; Sun, Tao; Fan, Xiaoxuan; Li, Xiuhong

doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2020.146794

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…The above-mentioned results have been observed during both the visual and the visual-auditory processing. These findings were consistent with the view that reading Chinese as a second language showed an accommodation pattern ( Nelson et al, 2009 ; Ma et al, 2020 ). The present results further revealed that the accommodation appeared in broader reading networks in addition to the visual perceptual processing areas.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

How Characters Are Learned Leaves Its Mark on the Neural Substrates of Chinese Reading

Feng

Mak

Wang

et al. 2022

eNeuro

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Understanding how the brain functions differently as one learns to read may shed light on the controversial nature of the reading ability of human being. Logographic writing system such as Chinese has been found to rely on specialized neural substrates beyond the reading network of alphabetic languages. The ability to read in Chinese has also been proposed to rely on writing skills. However, it was unclear whether the learning-related alteration of neural responses was language specific or resulted from the more reliance on writing practice during acquisition. This study investigated whether the emergence of typical logographic-specific regions relied on learning by writing. We taught proficient alphabetic language readers Chinese characters and used pre-test and post-test to identify changes in two critical stages of reading, namely, orthographic processing and orthographic-to-phonological mapping. Two typical left hemispheric areas for logographic reading showed increased responses to characters in the brains of proficient alphabetic readers after learning, regardless of whether the learning strategy involved writing practice. Moreover, learning strategy modulated the response magnitude or multivoxel patterns in the left superior parietal lobule, left middle frontal gyrus, and right fusiform gyrus, some of which were task dependent. The findings corroborated a limited role of writing in the emergence of logographic-specific reading network and suggested the heterogeneous nature of different brain regions in this network.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

How Characters Are Learned Leaves Its Mark on the Neural Substrates of Chinese Reading

Feng

Mak

Wang

et al. 2022

eNeuro

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“…The third aspect that impacts language organization is the brain area itself and the task to be solved. This hypothesis finds support in the study by Chinese researchers Ma et al (2020), who show that there are significant differences in neural processing related to writing skills in Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals, depending on the task to be completed in these two languages. These aspects were elaborated in accordance with the Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP) model by Cummins (2021), which postulates that specific neural correlates exist in the bilingual brain and uphold learning of more than one language.…”

Section: Cognitive Skills and Brain Activity (Neurological Studies)supporting

confidence: 56%

Bilingualism and Development of Literacy in Children: A Systematic Review

Oshchepkova,

Kartushina,

Razmakhnina

2023

Psych. Rus.

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Background. The importance of biliteracy in bilingual children’s development has been widely investigated and discussed for the last several decades, suggesting beneficial effects of writing and reading in two languages for bilingual children as well as for adult second language learners. Objective. To analyze research on the link between bilingualism and literacy development in two or more languages and the factors that may influence a successful or problematic biliteracy acquisition. RQ (1): What is the relationship between bilingualism and literacy of bilingual children? RQ (2): What strategies are used to develop biliteracy? Design. The review analyzes 50 studies of literacy development in bilingual children. The selected articles have been separated based on their methodology: 25 articles gave a critical analysis of more than 1,100 studies on the topic, strengthening the theoretical basis of existing research, and 25 other articles were empirical research articles demonstrating practical evidence for the former. Results. Our analysis revealed that literacy in bilinguals, or biliteracy, can be seen as a necessary condition for fluent development of bilingualism, though it is not a necessary condition (which is explained by the difference between structures of specific languages and writing systems, instruction in literacy, and cognitive baggage invoked by the task used to measure the skill) (Bialystok, 2002). Research suggests that bilingualism impacts children’s ultimate acquisition of literacy via the beneficial effects of bilingualism overall: advanced biliteracy boosts the development of phonological and phonemic awareness and metacognitive abilities. Thus, biliteracy can be considered as an advantage in terms of maintaining bilingual acquisition in general and developing writing skills in particular. Conclusion. There is a lack of studies on the development of writing skills in different educational contexts, across countries and cultures, which must be addressed and complemented by new empirical research. Research will enable policymakers to improve educational programs in accordance with the needs of bilingual children, who are the majority in the current global population.

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“…The evidence from behavioral studies suggested that Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals performed different phonological processing skills compared to their Mandarin monolingual peers over a wide age span (Chen et al, 2004;Li et al, 2011). Our studies on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) showed that Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals had different brain activation patterns and functional connectivity related to phonological tasks from Mandarin monolinguals, such as the inferior frontal gyrus and angular gyrus (Ma et al, 2020(Ma et al, , 2022. We also observed different functional connectivity in phonology-related subnetwork between Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals and Mandarin monolinguals through resting-state MRI, such as the resting-state functional connectivity of the inferior frontal gyrus and angular gyrus with temporal regions (Fan et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…Bilinguals rely on one brain to process two distinct phonologies. The functional imaging studies showed that the brain activation patterns during phonological processing of the native and the second language (L1 and L2, respectively) for bilinguals were different (see reviews Liu and Cao, 2016;Sulpizio et al, 2020), as well as the brain activation pattern during phonological processing of either language for bilinguals was different from that of the single language for monolingual (Parker Jones et al, 2012;Cao et al, 2013;Ma et al, 2020). The functional changes are accompanied by anatomical changes (see reviews Li et al, 2014;Stein et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study on the White Matter Structures Related to the Phonology in Cantonese–Mandarin Bilinguals

Jin

Pan

et al. 2022

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Cantonese and Mandarin are logographic languages, and the phonology is the main difference between the two languages. It is unclear whether the long-term experience of Cantonese–Mandarin bilingualism will shape different brain white matter structures related to phonological processing. A total of 30 Cantonese–Mandarin bilinguals and 30 Mandarin monolinguals completed diffusion-weighted imaging scan and phonological processing tasks. The tractography and tract-based spatial statistics were used to investigate the structural differences in the bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), and inferior fronto–occipital fasciculus (IFOF) between Cantonese–Mandarin bilinguals and Mandarin monolinguals. The post-hoc correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between the different structures with phonological processing skills. Compared to the Mandarin monolinguals, the Cantonese–Mandarin bilinguals had higher fractional anisotropy (FA) along the left ILFs higher mean diffusivity (MD) along the right IFOF and the temporoparietal segment of SLF (tSLF), higher axial diffusivity (AD) in the right IFOF and left ILF, and lower number of streamlines in the bilateral tSLF. The mean AD of the different voxels in the right IFOF and the mean FA of the different voxels in the left ILF were positively correlated with the inverse efficiency score (IES) of the Cantonese auditory and Mandarin visual rhyming judgment tasks, respectively, within the bilingual group. The correlation between FA and IES was different among the groups. The long-term experience of Cantonese–Mandarin bilinguals shapes the different brain white matter structures in tSLF, IFOF, and ILF. Compared to the monolinguals, the bilinguals’ white matter showed higher diffusivity, especially in the axonal direction. These changes were related to bilinguals’ phonological processing.

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Neural substrates of bilingual processing in a logographic writing system: An fMRI study in Chinese Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals

Cited by 11 publications

References 64 publications

How Characters Are Learned Leaves Its Mark on the Neural Substrates of Chinese Reading

How Characters Are Learned Leaves Its Mark on the Neural Substrates of Chinese Reading

Bilingualism and Development of Literacy in Children: A Systematic Review

A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study on the White Matter Structures Related to the Phonology in Cantonese–Mandarin Bilinguals

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