A Brain Imaging Perspective of

Bilingualism, Brain Organization, and Development

Denise Klein Lecture  Series:  Winter-­‐2012  Program  

March 26, 2012, Montreal

Sakai,  2005  (review)  Language  Acquisi8on  and  Brain  Development  Science  310,  815  

Sensi8ve  period  for  first  language  acquisi8on  

    Johnson  &  Newport.  (1989).    Cogni*ve  Psychology,  21,  60-­‐99    

Sensi8ve  period  for  second  language  acquisi8on  

Early brain growth model

Growth rate at 3,6,12,24,48 months i.e. derivative of volume ratio

Volume growth at 3, 6, 12, 24, 48 months i.e. volume ratio between t=0 and time t

Courtesy of Alan Evans

Gogtay  et  al,  2004  PNAS,  page  8174-­‐8179  

Klein  Lab  

What  about  brain  func8on??  

Petersen et al, 1989

ENGLISH-FRENCH STUDY Task Example Repeat English words (L1 REP) contestant - contestant Generate Synonym English (L1 SYN) beverage - drink Generate Rhyme English (L1 RHY) tactical - practical Translate English-French (L1 TRAN) forget - oublier Repeat French words (L2 REP) pardessus - pardessus Generate Synonym French (L2 SYN) converser - parler Translate French-English (L2 TRAN) réussir - succeed INPUT (AUDITORY); OUTPUT (SPEECH)

Klein et al, 1995

MANDARIN-ENGLISH STUDY Task Example Repeat Mandarin words (L1 REP) Generate Verbs Mandarin (L1 GEN) Repeat English words (L2 REP) cowboy - cowboy Generate Verbs English (L2 GEN) telephone - ring INPUT (AUDITORY); OUTPUT (SPEECH)

Klein et al, 1999

SIGNING STUDY

Task Repeat signs Generate Verbs for Noun Signs INPUT (VISUAL); OUTPUT (SIGN)

Petitto et al, 2000

Do voxels in an area contain neuronal populations each tuned to a different language

or are these neurons language-invariant?

Conditions for Experiment

Block Task Δ Stimulus Target

L1 same word ∅ bed bed bed bed bed bed L1 different word M bed bed bed bed bed pig L1-L2 translate L bed bed bed bed bed lit L1-L2 unrelated LM bed bed bed bed bed pomme L2 same word ∅ lampe lampe lampe lampe lampe lampe L2 different word M lampe lampe lampe lampe lampe gant L2-L1 translate L lampe lampe lampe lampe lampe light L2-L1 unrelated LM lampe lampe lampe lampe lampe grass

Klein et al, 1995

L2 Synonym – L1 Synonym

Scotswoman wakes up speaking with a South African accent

Reuter LONDON - A Scottish

woman with a lilting brogue went to bed with a headache and woke up speaking with a South African accent, a British doctor said yesterday. Doctors say the woman had a minor stroke and is now suffering from Foreign Accent Syndrome, a rare condition in which patients

acquire a completely different accent after suffering a stroke. “It is to do with the melody or intonation of one’s voice. Normally a stroke victim’s voice is affected in terms of slowing it down or finding it difficult to speak”. Dr Sophie Scott of the Applied Psychology unit told the London Daily.

Other  interes8ng  linguis8c  situa8ons  

English Grammatical Judgement

Mayberry & Lock, Brain & Language, 2003

0.550.600.650.700.750.800.850.900.951.00

Simple Dative Conj. Pass. RCSyntactic Structure

A' S

core

NC

Early Sgn

Early Spkn

No Early Lng

Mayberry et al, 2011

What  about  brain  structure??  

Age  of  acquisi8on      appears  to  be  crucial  in  laying  down  the  structure  for  language  learning    and  that  it  is  early  organiza8on  for  language  learning  that  takes  full    advantage  of  the  period  of  greatest  neural  plas8city  during  early  

 childhood    

Group studies

R.A

R.A

Klein et al, 2000

French English Synonym generation - Word repetition

a

-43, 33, -2 -39, 21, 5

Synonym generation - Silent baseline

b

-60, -39, 15 -62, -39, 15

lesion lesion

lesion lesion

Klein, 2003

Collaborators    on  new  projects    

Kelvin  Mok  (Klein  Lab)  Jen-­‐Kai  Chen  (Klein  Lab)  

Megan  Callahan  (Klein  lab)  Jennika  Soles  (Klein  lab)  

Jonathan  Berken  (Klein  and  Gracco)    

Shari  Baum  Vincent  Gracco  Debra  Titone  Fred  Genesee  Natalie  Phillips  

 Kate  Watkins    (University  of  Oxford)