Word learning in two languages: Neural overlap and representational differences

Abstract

We investigated the neural basis of newly learned words in Spanish as a mother tongue (L1) and English as a second language (L2). Participants acquired new names for real but unfamiliar concepts in both languages over the course of two days. On day 3, they completed a semantic categorization task during fMRI scanning. The results revealed largely overlapping brain regions for newly learned words in Spanish and English. However, Spanish showed a heightened BOLD response within prefrontal cortex (PFC), due to increased competition of existing lexical representations. In contrast, English displayed higher activity than Spanish within primary auditory cortex, which suggests increased phonological processing due to more irregular phonological-orthographic mappings. Overall, these results suggest that novel words are learned similarly in Spanish L1 and English L2, and that they are represented in largely overlapping brain regions. However, they differ in terms of cognitive control and phonological processes.