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Neural correlates of grammatical inflection in older native and second-language speakers*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2017

KRISTIN PREHN Open the ORCID record for KRISTIN PREHN [Opens in a new window] ,
BENEDIKT TAUD ,
JANA REIFEGERSTE ,
HARALD CLAHSEN  and
AGNES FLÖEL
KRISTIN PREHN*
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology & NeuroCure Clinical Research Center, Charité UniversitätsmedizinBerlin
BENEDIKT TAUD
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology & NeuroCure Clinical Research Center, Charité UniversitätsmedizinBerlin
JANA REIFEGERSTE
Affiliation:
Potsdam Research Institute for Multilingualism
HARALD CLAHSEN
Affiliation:
Potsdam Research Institute for Multilingualism
AGNES FLÖEL
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology & NeuroCure Clinical Research Center, Charité UniversitätsmedizinBerlin
*
Address for correspondence: Kristin Prehn, Department of Neurology & NeuroCure Clinical Research Center, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117Berlinkristin.prehn@charite.de
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Abstract

Speaking a late-acquired second language (L2) involves increased cognitive demands, as has been shown mainly in young and middle-aged adults. To investigate grammatical inflection in older L2 speakers, we acquired behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging data, while L1 and L2 speakers performed a grammaticality judgment task. L2 speakers showed higher error rates than native speakers, specifically when incorrect forms had to be rejected. Poorer performance in L2 speakers was accompanied by increased activity in the medial superior frontal gyrus (SFG), indicating the additional recruitment of executive control mechanisms. In addition, post-hoc within-group comparisons of behavioral and neural correlates provide evidence for dual-mechanism models in older adults, suggesting that language processing involves both procedural and declarative memory systems. Moreover, we demonstrated that speaking an L2 requires more executive control and relies to a lesser extent on the procedural memory system than speaking one's own native language.

Keywords

Agingsecond-language speakersfMRImorphologygrammatical inflectionexecutive functions
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 1 - 12
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

*

We would like to thank all participants for their time and effort to complete the study.

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