title: How does language distance between L1 and L2 affect the L2 brain network? An fMRI study of Korean-Chinese-English trilinguals.
abstract: The present study tested the hypothesis that language distance between first language (L1) and second language (L2) influences the assimilation and accommodation pattern in Korean-Chinese-English trilinguals. The distance between English and Korean is smaller than that between Chinese and Korean in terms of orthographic transparency, because both English and Korean are alphabetic, whereas Chinese is logographic. During fMRI, Korean trilingual participants performed a visual rhyming judgment task in three languages (Korean: KK, Chinese: KC, English: KE). Two L1 control groups were native Chinese and English speakers performing the task in their native languages (CC and EE, respectively). The general pattern of brain activation of KC was more similar to that of CC than KK, suggesting accommodation. Higher accuracy in KC was associated with decreased activation in regions of the KK network, suggesting reduced assimilation. In contrast, the brain activation of KE was more similar to that of KK than EE, suggesting assimilation. Higher accuracy in KE was associated with decreased activation in regions of the EE network, suggesting reduced accommodation. Finally, an ROI analysis on the left middle frontal gyrus revealed greater activation for KC than for KE, suggesting its selective involvement in the L2 with more arbitrary mapping between orthography and phonology (i.e., Chinese). Taken together, the brain network involved in L2 reading is similar to the L1 network when L2 and L1 are similar in orthographic transparency, while significant accommodation is expected when L2 is more opaque than L1.
authors.affiliation: National University of Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Say Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaoxia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, PR China; Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Guosheng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, PR China; Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, PR China. Electronic address: lilyliu.bnu@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. Electronic address: fcao@msu.edu.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cao
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Accommodation; Assimilation; Bilingualism/multilingualism; Orthographic transparency; fMRI