Mental addition in bilinguals as revealed by magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Mental addition in bilinguals as revealed by magnetoencephalography (MEG) Jo-Fu Lin1*, Toshiaki Imada1, Keita Tanaka2, Jen-Chuen Hsieh3, Iku Nemoto2 and Patricia Kuhl1 1 University of Washington, United States 2 Tokyo Denki University, Japan 3 Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan The present study uses magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate bilingual arithmetic processing and the effect of translation at the cortical level. Previous behavioral studies on bilingual mental calculation showed a delayed response time and reduced accuracy when bilinguals were tested with their non-preferred language (second language; L2) compared to their preferred language (first language; L1). One of the most widely accepted explanations of such a language effect is translation. In this study, neuromagnetic responses were recorded when addition problems were presented auditorally in bilinguals’ L1 and L2. At the behavioral level, bilinguals showed lower accuracy in the addition task in the L2 that involved two-digit numbers. At the cortical level, mental addition in both L1 and L2 engaged widely distributed cortical areas, including the frontal and temporal regions bilaterally. However, delayed activation and stronger overall activation magnitude were observed during the L2 tasks, compared to the L1 tasks. The activation in L1 addition tasks showed two pronounced activation peaks, whereas less distinct activation peaks were observed in the L2 addition tasks. This is because early activation in response to the L2 numbers was generally delayed and overlapped with the later activation, possibly indicating less sensitivity and delayed processing for verbal numbers presented in a less familiar language. The later activation showed larger amplitude in the L2 addition tasks compared to the L1 addition tasks, suggesting more neural resources and higher cognitive efforts demanded by the L2 addition tasks. These results demonstrate that the experience in learning and performing mental calculation in a specific language (e.g., L1) impacts not only arithmetic performance at the behavioral level, but also the spatiotemporal activation patterns at the cortical level. Conference: Biomag 2010 - 17th International Conference on Biomagnetism , Dubrovnik, Croatia, 28 Mar - 1 Apr, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Neurocognition and Functional Connectivity Citation: Lin J, Imada T, Tanaka K, Hsieh J, Nemoto I and Kuhl P (2010). Mental addition in bilinguals as revealed by magnetoencephalography (MEG). Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Biomag 2010 - 17th International Conference on Biomagnetism . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.06.00402 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 08 Apr 2010; Published Online: 08 Apr 2010. * Correspondence: Jo-Fu Lin, University of Washington, Seattle, United States, jofulin@u.washington.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Jo-Fu Lin Toshiaki Imada Keita Tanaka Jen-Chuen Hsieh Iku Nemoto Patricia Kuhl Google Jo-Fu Lin Toshiaki Imada Keita Tanaka Jen-Chuen Hsieh Iku Nemoto Patricia Kuhl Google Scholar Jo-Fu Lin Toshiaki Imada Keita Tanaka Jen-Chuen Hsieh Iku Nemoto Patricia Kuhl PubMed Jo-Fu Lin Toshiaki Imada Keita Tanaka Jen-Chuen Hsieh Iku Nemoto Patricia Kuhl Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.