Posterior N1 asymmetry to English and Welsh words in Early and Late English-Welsh bilinguals.
We investigated the lateralization of the posterior event-related potential (ERP) component N1 (120-170 ms) to written words in two groups of bilinguals. Fourteen Early English-Welsh bilinguals and 14 late learners of Welsh performed a semantic categorization task on separate blocks of English and Welsh words. In both groups, the N1 was strongly lateralized over the left posterior sites for both languages. A robust correlation was found between N1 asymmetry for English and N1 asymmetry for Welsh words in both groups. Furthermore, in Late Bilinguals, the N1 asymmetry for Welsh words increased with years of experience in Welsh. These data suggest that, in Late Bilinguals, the lateralization of neural circuits involved in written word recognition for the second language is associated to the organization for the first language, and that increased experience with the second language is associated to a larger functional cerebral asymmetry in favor of the left hemisphere.
Grossi
Giordana
G
Department of Psychology, State University of New York at New Paltz, 600 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY 12561, USA. grossig@newpaltz.edu
Savill
Nicola
N
Thomas
Enlli
E
Thierry
Guillaume
G
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019303:Multilingualism; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult