Abstract
Do embodied semantic systems play different roles depending on when and how well a given language was learned? Emergent evidence suggests that this is the case for isolated, decontextualized stimuli, but no study has addressed the issue considering naturalistic narratives. Seeking to bridge this gap, we assessed motor-system dynamics in 26 Spanish-English bilinguals as they engaged in free, unconstrained reading of naturalistic action texts (ATs, highlighting the characters’ movements) and neutral texts (NTs, featuring low motility) in their first and second language (L1, L2). To explore functional connectivity spread over each reading session, we recorded ongoing high-density electroencephalographic signals and subjected them to functional connectivity analysis via a spatial clustering approach. Results showed that, in L1, AT (relative to NT) reading involved increased connectivity between left and right central electrodes consistently implicated in action-related processes, as well as distinct source-level modulations in motor regions. In L2, despite null group-level effects, enhanced motor-related connectivity during AT reading correlated positively with L2 proficiency and negatively with age of L2 learning. Taken together, these findings suggest that action simulations during unconstrained narrative reading involve neural couplings between motor-sensitive mechanisms, in proportion to how consolidated a language is. More generally, such evidence addresses recent calls to test the ecological validity of motor-resonance effects while offering new insights on their relation with experiential variables.
Highlights
Do embodied semantic systems play different roles depending on when and how well a given language was learned? This key question within the language grounding framework has been informed by bilingual experiments targeting action words in first and second languages (L1s, L2s) (Ahlberg et al, 2017; De Grauwe et al, 2014; Dudschig et al, 2014; Kogan et al, 2020; Vukovic and Shtyrov, 2014)
Neither did we find any significant differences in the right motor scout [t(45.959) 1⁄4 1.68, p 1⁄4 .95] or the right temporal scout [t(39.594) 1⁄4 À0.59742, p 1⁄4 .28]
Despite the lack of connectivity differences between the L2 texts when averaging the whole sample, we examined whether enhanced connectivity among motor-related electrodes during action text (AT) processing was related to measures of L2 entrenchment
Summary
Do embodied semantic systems play different roles depending on when and how well a given language was learned? This key question within the language grounding framework has been informed by bilingual experiments targeting action words in first and second languages (L1s, L2s) (Ahlberg et al, 2017; De Grauwe et al, 2014; Dudschig et al, 2014; Kogan et al, 2020; Vukovic and Shtyrov, 2014). The field is undermined by low ecological validity (i.e., low representativeness), as it relies mainly on decontextualized word-level stimuli presented in sequences that do not reflect the conditions of reading in daily life (García et al, 2018; Trevisan et al, 2017). To bridge this gap, the present study examines electroencephalographic (EEG) connectivity signatures of motor-system modulation in bilinguals with varying proficiency levels and ages of L2 learning as they freely read action-laden and non-action-laden narratives in L1 and L2. As recently proposed in an integrative review (Kogan et al, 2020), the engagement of sensorimotor brain systems may be attenuated in languages learned after middle childhood (L2s) as compared with those acquired since intra-uterine life (L1s)
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