Tracking Components of Bilingual Language Control in Speech Production: An fMRI Study Using Functional Localizers.

When bilingual speakers switch back to speaking in their native language (L1) after having used their second language (L2), they often experience difficulty in retrieving words in their L1. This phenomenon is referred to as the L2 after-effect. We used the L2 after-effect as a lens to explore the neural bases of bilingual language control mechanisms. Our goal was twofold: first, to explore whether bilingual language control draws on domain-general or language-specific mechanisms; second, to investigate the precise mechanism(s) that drive the L2 after-effect. We used a precision fMRI approach based on functional localizers to measure the extent to which the brain activity that reflects the L2 after-effect overlaps with the language network (Fedorenko et al., 2010) and the domain-general multiple demand network (Duncan, 2010), as well as three task-specific networks that tap into interference resolution, lexical retrieval, and articulation. Forty-two Polish-English bilinguals participated in the study. Our results show that the L2 after-effect reflects increased engagement of domain-general but not language-specific resources. Furthermore, contrary to previously proposed interpretations, we did not find evidence that the effect reflects increased difficulty related to lexical access, articulation, and the resolution of lexical interference. We propose that difficulty of speech production in the picture naming paradigm-manifested as the L2 after-effect-reflects interference at a nonlinguistic level of task schemas or a general increase of cognitive control engagement during speech production in L1 after L2.

TiO2/PDA Multilayer Nanocomposites with Exceptionally Sharp Large-Scale Interfaces and Nitrogen Doping Gradient.

The evolving field of photocatalysis requires the development of new functional materials, particularly those suitable for large-scale commercial systems. One particularly promising approach is the creation of hybrid organic/inorganic materials. Despite being extensively studied, materials such as polydopamine (PDA) and titanium oxide continue to show significant promise for use in such applications. Nitrogen-doped titanium oxide and free-standing PDA films obtained at the air/water interface are particularly interesting. This study introduces a straightforward and reproducible approach for synthesizing a novel class of large-scale multilayer nanocomposites. The method involves the alternate layering of high-quality materials at the air/water interface combined with precise atomic layer deposition techniques, resulting in a gradient nitrogen doping of titanium oxide layers with exceptionally sharp oxide/polymer interfaces. The analysis confirmed the presence of nitrogen in the interstitial and substitutional sites of the TiO2 lattice while maintaining the 2D-like structure of the PDA films. These chemical and structural characteristics translate into a reduction of the band gap by over 0.63 eV and an increase in the photogenerated current by over 60% compared with pure amorphous TiO2. Furthermore, the nanocomposites demonstrate excellent stability during the 1 h continuous photocurrent generation test.

Domain-general and language-specific contributions to speech production in a second language: an fMRI study using functional localizers.

For bilinguals, speaking in a second language (L2) compared to the native language (L1) is usually more difficult. In this study we asked whether the difficulty in L2 production reflects increased demands imposed on domain-general or core language mechanisms. We compared the brain response to speech production in L1 and L2 within two functionally-defined networks in the brain: the Multiple Demand (MD) network and the language network. We found that speech production in L2 was linked to a widespread increase of brain activity in the domain-general MD network. The language network did not show a similarly robust differences in processing speech in the two languages, however, we found increased response to L2 production in the language-specific portion of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). To further explore our results, we have looked at domain-general and language-specific response within the brain structures postulated to form a Bilingual Language Control (BLC) network. Within this network, we found a robust increase in response to L2 in the domain-general, but also in some language-specific voxels including in the left IFG. Our findings show that L2 production strongly engages domain-general mechanisms, but only affects language sensitive portions of the left IFG. These results put constraints on the current model of bilingual language control by precisely disentangling the domain-general and language-specific contributions to the difficulty in speech production in L2.

Control of Intermolecular Interactions toward the Production of Free-Standing Interfacial Polydopamine Films.

Aggregation of the polydopamine (PDA) molecular building blocks at the air/water interface leads to obtaining large surface nanometric-thin films. This mechanism follows two possible pathways, namely, covalent or non-covalent self-assembly, which result in a different degree of structure order and, consequently, different structural properties. Control of this mechanism could be vital for applications that require true self-support PDA free-standing films, for example, electrochemical sensing or membrane technology. Here, we are considering the impact of boric acid (BA) and Cu2+ ions on the mentioned mechanism exclusively for the free-standing films from the air/water interface. We have employed and refined our own spectroscopic reflectometry method to achieve an exceptionally high real-time control over the thickness growth. It turned out that BA and Cu2+ ions significantly impact the film growth process. Reduction of the nanoparticles size and their number was examined via UV-vis spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy, showing a colossal reduction in the mean diameter of nanoparticles in the case of BA and a moderate reduction in the case of Cu2+. This modification is leading to significant enhancement of the process efficiency through moderation of the topological properties of the films, as revealed by atomic force microscopy. Next, applying infrared, Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we presented small amounts of metal (B or Cu) in the final structure of PDA and simultaneously their vital role in the oxidation mechanism and cross-linking through covalent or non-covalent bonds. Therefore, we revealed the possibility of synthesizing films via the expected self-assembly mechanism which has hitherto been out of control. Moreover, modification of mechanical properties toward exceptionally elastic films through the BA-assisted synthesis pathway was shown by achieving Young's modulus value up to 24.1 ± 5.6 and 18.3 ± 6.4 GPa, using nanoindentation and Brillouin light scattering, respectively.

Overlapping but separate number representations in the intraparietal sulcus-Probing format- and modality-independence in sighted Braille readers.

The Triple-Code Model stipulates that numerical information from different formats and modalities converges on a common magnitude representation in the Intraparietal Sulcus (IPS). To what extent the representations of all numerosity forms overlap remains unsolved. It has been postulated that the representation of symbolic numerosities (for example, Arabic digits) is sparser and grounded in an existing representation that codes for non-symbolic numerosity information (i.e., sets of objects). Other theories argue that numerical symbols represent a separate number category that emerges only during education. Here, we tested a unique group of sighted tactile Braille readers with numerosities 2, 4, 6 and 8 in three number notations: Arabic digits, sets of dots, tactile Braille numbers. Using univariate methods, we showed a consistent overlap in activations evoked by these three number notations. This result shows that all three used notations are represented in the IPS, which may suggest at least a partial overlap between the representations of the three notations used in this experiment. Using MVPA, we found that only non-automatized number information (Braille and sets of dots) allowed successful number classification. However, the numerosity of one notation could not be predicted above chance from the brain activation patterns evoked by another notation (no cross-classification). These results show that the IPS may host independent number codes in overlapping cortical circuits. In addition, they suggest that the level of training in encoding a given type of number information is an important factor that determines the amount of exploitable information and needs to be controlled for in order to identify the neural code underlying numerical information per se.

Bilingualism caught in a net: A new approach to understanding the complexity of bilingual experience.

The growing importance of research on bilingualism in psychology and neuroscience motivates the need for a psychometric model that can be used to understand and quantify this phenomenon. This research is the first to meet this need. We reanalyzed two data sets (N = 171 and N = 112) from relatively young adult language-unbalanced bilinguals and asked whether bilingualism is best described by the factor structure or by the network structure. The factor and network models were established on one data set and then validated on the other data set in a fully confirmatory manner. The network model provided the best fit to the data. This implies that bilingualism should be conceptualized as an emergent phenomenon arising from direct and idiosyncratic dependencies among the history of language acquisition, diverse language skills, and language-use practices. These dependencies can be reduced to neither a single universal quotient nor to some more general factors. Additional in-depth network analyses showed that the subjective perception of proficiency along with language entropy and language mixing were the most central indices of bilingualism, thus indicating that these measures can be especially sensitive to variation in the overall bilingual experience. Overall, this work highlights the great potential of psychometric network modeling to gain a more accurate description and understanding of complex (psycho)linguistic and cognitive phenomena. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Context-based facilitation of semantic access follows both logarithmic and linear functions of stimulus probability.

Stimuli are easier to process when context makes them predictable, but does context-based facilitation arise from preactivation of a limited set of relatively probable upcoming stimuli (with facilitation then linearly related to probability) or, instead, because the system maintains and updates a probability distribution across all items (with facilitation logarithmically related to probability)? We measured the N400, an index of semantic access, to words of varying probability, including unpredictable words. Word predictability was measured using both cloze probabilities and a state-of-the-art machine learning language model (GPT-2). We reanalyzed five datasets (n = 138) to demonstrate and then replicate that context-based facilitation on the N400 is graded, even among unpredictable words. Furthermore, we established that the relationship between word predictability and context-based facilitation combines linear and logarithmic functions. We argue that this composite function reveals properties of the mapping between words and semantic features and how feature- and word-related information is activated on-line.

The relative balance between languages predicts the degree of engagement of global language control.

After naming pictures in their second language (L2), bilinguals experience difficulty in naming pictures in their native language (L1). This phenomenon, the "L2 after-effect", is a lingering consequence of language control mechanisms regulating the activation of L1 and L2 to facilitate L2 production. Building on the Inhibitory Control model proposed by Green (1998), we propose that how much language control is applied depends on the relative balance between the current activation of L1 and L2. In two experiments, Polish-English bilinguals immersed in their L1 performed a blocked picture-naming task. This paradigm provided a continuous measure of the relative balance between the two languages and made it possible to index engagement of control by measuring the L2 after-effect. The results indicate that the higher the activation level of L1 and the lower the activation level of L2, the bigger the L2 after-effect. The results also revealed an enduring down-regulation of L1 activation level in more language-balanced speakers.

The power of "good": Can adjectives rapidly decrease as well as increase the availability of the upcoming noun?

Can a single adjective immediately influence message-building during sentence processing? We presented participants with 168 sentence contexts, such as "His skin was red from spending the day at the …" Sentences ended with either the most expected word ("beach") or a low cloze probability completion ("pool"). Nouns were preceded by adjectives that changed their relative likelihood (e.g., "neighborhood" increases the cloze probability of pool whereas "sandy" promotes beach). We asked if participants' online processing can be rapidly updated by the adjective, changing the resulting pattern of facilitation at the noun, and, if so, whether updates unfold symmetrically-not only increasing, but also decreasing, the fit of particular nouns. We measured event-related potentials (ERPs) to the adjective and the noun and modeled these with respect to (a) the overall amount of updating promoted by the adjective, (b) the preadjectival cloze probability of the noun and, (c) the amount of cloze probability change for the obtained noun after the adjective. Bayesian mixed-effects analysis of N400 amplitude at the noun revealed that adjectives rapidly influenced semantic processing of the noun, but did so asymmetrically, with positive updating (reducing N400 amplitudes) having a greater effect than negative updating (increasing N400s). At the adjective, the amount of (possible) updating was not associated with any discernible ERP modulation. Overall, these results suggest the information provided by adjectives is buffered until a head noun is encountered, at which point the access of the noun's semantics is shaped in parallel by both the adjective and the sentence-level representation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Does L2 Proficiency Impact L2-L1 Transfer While Reading L1 Collocations? Evidence From Behavioral and ERP Data.

Multi-word expressions (MWEs) are fixed, conventional phrases often used by native speakers of a given language (L1). The type of MWEs investigated in this study were collocations. For bilinguals who have intensive contact with the second language (L2), collocational patterns can be transferred from the L2 to the L1 as a result of cross-linguistic influence (CLI). For example, bilingual migrants can accept collocations from their L2 translated to their L1 as correct. In this study, we asked whether such CLI is possible in native speakers living in the L1 environment and whether it depends on their L2 English proficiency. To this end, we created three lists of expressions in Polish: (1) well-formed Polish verb-noun collocations (e.g., ma sens - ∗has sense), (2) collocational calques from English (loan translations), where the English verb was replaced by a Polish translation equivalent (e.g., ∗ robi sens - makes sense), and, as a reference (3) absurd verb-noun expression, where the verb did not collocate with the noun (e.g., ∗ zjada sens - ∗eats sense). We embedded the three types of collocations in sentences and presented them to L1 Polish participants of varying L2 English proficiency in two experiments. We investigated whether L2 calques would (1) be explicitly judged as non-native in the L1; (2) whether they would evoke differential brain response than native L1 Polish equivalents in the event-related potentials (ERPs). We also explored whether the sensitivity to CLI in calques depended on participants' level of proficiency in L2 English. The results indicated that native speakers of Polish assessed the calques from English as less acceptable than the correct Polish collocations. Still, there was no difference in online processing of correct and calques collocations as measured by the ERPs. This suggests a dissociation between explicit offline judgments and indices of online language processing. Interestingly, English L2 proficiency did not modulate these effects. The results indicate that the influence of English on Polish is so pervasive that collocational calques from this language are likely to become accepted and used by Poles.

Effects of semantic plausibility, syntactic complexity and n-gram frequency on children's sentence repetition.

Theories of language processing differ with respect to the role of abstract syntax and semantics vs surface-level lexical co-occurrence (n-gram) frequency. The contribution of each of these factors has been demonstrated in previous studies of children and adults, but none have investigated them jointly. This study evaluated the role of all three factors in a sentence repetition task performed by children aged 4-7 and 11-12 years. It was found that semantic plausibility benefitted performance in both age groups; syntactic complexity disadvantaged the younger group but benefitted the older group; while contrary to previous findings, n-gram frequency did not facilitate, and in a post-hoc analysis even hampered, performance. This new evidence suggests that n-gram frequency effects might be restricted to the highly constrained and frequent n-grams used in previous investigations, and that semantics and morphosyntax play a more powerful role than n-gram frequency, supporting the role of abstract linguistic knowledge in children's sentence processing.

False friends or real friends? False cognates show advantage in word form learning.

We explored the acquisition of three types of second language (L2) words in a paired-associates learning task. Seventy-six Polish participants were presented with 24 nonwords paired with pictures; they completed 8 interleaving test blocks of form production and meaning recognition, both followed by feedback. The nonwords included "cognates" (nonwords resembling the Polish word for the object depicted in a given picture), "false cognates" (resembling a different Polish word than depicted), and "non-cognates" (nonwords different from Polish words). We measured the learning trajectories for all word types across the blocks. Cognates were fastest to learn in the recognition blocks as well as in the production blocks. Compared to non-cognates, false cognates were learned equally fast in the recognition blocks, but faster in the production blocks. This suggests the learning of false cognates benefits from the overlap in L1-L2 form and is not harmed by L1 interference, while the learning of cognates benefits from both form overlap and conceptual overlap. The study is unique as it examines how learners acquire both the form of new words, and the link between the L2 forms and their meanings. It also explores the dynamics of the learning process.

Patterns of bilingual language use and response inhibition: A test of the adaptive control hypothesis.

Given prior studies that provided inconsistent results, there is an ongoing debate on the issue of whether bilingualism benefits cognitive control. We tested the Adaptive Control Hypothesis, according to which only the intense use of different languages in the same situation without mixing them in single utterances (called dual-language context) confers a bilingual advantage in response inhibition. In a large-scale correlational study, we attempted to circumvent several pitfalls of previous research on the bilingual advantage by testing a relatively large sample of participants and employing a more reliable and valid measurement of constructs (i.e., latent variable approach accompanied by Bayesian estimation). Our results do not support the Adaptive Control Hypothesis' prediction: the intensity of the dual-language context experience was unrelated to the efficiency of response inhibition in bilinguals. The results suggest that the Adaptive Control Hypothesis is not likely to account for the inconsistent results regarding the bilingual advantage hypothesis, at least in the case of the response-inhibition mechanism. At the same time, the study points to the problem of measuring the response-inhibition construct at the behavioral level. No evidence for a robust response-inhibition construct adds to the growing skepticism on this issue in the literature.

The mechanisms of prediction updating that impact the processing of upcoming word: An event-related potential study on sentence comprehension.

One of the most compelling pieces of evidence for the presence of predictions in language comprehension comes from event-related potential (ERP) studies which show that encountering an adjective whose gender marking is inconsistent with that of a highly expectable noun leads to an effect at the adjective. Until now the mechanism underlying this effect has been unknown. The present study tests a novel hypothesis whereby the effect at adjectives reflects prediction updating, which in turn impacts the N400 generated by the upcoming noun. In 2 experiments, native speakers of Polish read short stories that made several nouns likely at the position of a direct object in the story's final sentence. The noun was preceded by a gender-marked adjective which was shown in either of the 2 grammatical forms: (a) informative about the following noun (adjectival gender marking constrained which nouns can follow), or (b) less informative (the grammatical marking did not disambiguate the gender of the following noun). Importantly, the same stories and critical words were used in both conditions, which was possible thanks to exploiting syncretisms in Polish adjectival inflection. The results provide support for 1 or more mechanisms of prediction updating at the adjective that impact the amplitude of the N400 elicited by the following noun. Together, these results show that when only morphosyntactic cues are available, they are instantly used to update predictions about upcoming words. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

When a second language hits a native language. What ERPs (do and do not) tell us about language retrieval difficulty in bilingual language production.

The accumulating evidence suggests that prior usage of a second language (L2) leads to processing costs on the subsequent production of a native language (L1). However, it is unclear what mechanism underlies this effect. It has been proposed that the L1 cost reflects inhibition of L1 representation acting during L1 production; however, previous studies exploring this issue were inconclusive. It is also unsettled whether the mechanism operates on the whole-language level or is restricted to translation equivalents in the two languages. We report a study that allowed us to address both issues behaviorally with the use of ERPs while focusing on the consequences of using L2 on the production of L1. In our experiment, native speakers of Polish (L1) and learners of English (L2) named a set of pictures in L1 following a set of pictures in either L1 or L2. Half of the pictures were repeated from the preceding block and half were new; this enabled dissociation of the effects on the level of the whole language from those specific to individual lexical items. Our results are consistent with the notion that language after-effects operate at a whole-language level. Behaviorally, we observed a clear processing cost on the whole-language level and a small facilitation on the item-specific level. The whole-language effect was accompanied by an enhanced, fronto-centrally distributed negativity in the 250-350 ms time-window which we identified as the N300 (in contrast to previous research, which probably misidentified the effect as the N2), a component that presumably reflects retrieval difficulty of relevant language representations during picture naming. As such, unlike previous studies that reported N2 for naming pictures in L1 after L2 use, we propose that the reported ERPs (N300) indicate that prior usage of L2 hampers lexical access to names in L1. Based on the literature, the after-effects could be caused by L1 inhibition and/or L2 interference, but the ERPs so far have not been informative about the causal mechanism.

Examining the Role of General Cognitive Skills in Language Processing: A Window into Complex Cognition.

Whenever we use language to communicate, sounds, signs, and/or letters are combined into words that, in turn, form sentences, which together tell a story. Both language production and language comprehension rely on representations at different levels of granularity that need to be continuously and rapidly activated, selected, and combined. The representations themselves are specific to language, but many processes that regulate their use, such as inhibition of competitors or updating of working memory with new information, are so-called domain-general abilities that apply across different kinds of tasks. Here, we provide an overview of the behavioral and neurophysiological evidence in favor of domain-general abilities underpinning language skills and describe which particular aspects of production and comprehension draw upon such cognitive resources. We discuss how this line of research not only reveals important similarities between production and comprehension but also helps to establish links between language and other cognitive domains. Finally, we argue that studying how domain-general abilities are used in language will lead to important insights into the highly dynamic and efficient communication between brain networks that is necessary to successfully go from sounds to stories.

Orthographic Priming in Braille Reading as Evidence for Task-specific Reorganization in the Ventral Visual Cortex of the Congenitally Blind.

The task-specific principle asserts that, following deafness or blindness, the deprived cortex is reorganized in a manner such that the task of a given area is preserved even though its input modality has been switched. Accordingly, tactile reading engages the ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOT) in the blind in a similar way to regular reading in the sighted. Others, however, show that the vOT of the blind processes spoken sentence structure, which suggests that the task-specific principle might not apply to vOT. The strongest evidence for the vOT's engagement in sighted reading comes from orthographic repetition-suppression studies. Here, congenitally blind adults were tested in an fMRI repetition-suppression paradigm. Results reveal a double dissociation, with tactile orthographic priming in the vOT and auditory priming in general language areas. Reconciling our finding with other evidence, we propose that the vOT in the blind serves multiple functions, one of which, orthographic processing, overlaps with its function in the sighted.

Evaluation and Comparison of the Effectiveness of Rehabilitation Procedures in the Area of ​Pain in the Lumbosacral Spine Performed in Sanatoria and Outpatient Conditions.

BACKGROUND: Low back pain is among the most frequent conditions of nowadays and due to its high prevalence, it is defined as a social and civilization-related disease.Today, increasingly young patients present with this condition affecting about 80% of the population. In Poland, 70% of the population complain of back pain and the prevalence rate increases with age. The treatment includes application of various procedures, both in outpatient conditions and in sanatoria. The aim of the study was to compare the effects of sanatorium treatment with those of outpatient treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 240 patients with low back pain participated in the study. The sample was divided into two groups: 120 pa-tients undergoing treated in outpatient conditions and next, 120 patients undergoing sanatorium treatment. The research was based on survey in a form of a questionnaire, selected mobility tests and assessment of pain using thermal imaging camera and an algometer. RESULTS: The patients undergoing rehabilitation procedures in a sanatorium obtain improvement in terms of pain sensation (5.39 points in VAS scale) as compared with the patients undergoing rehabilitation in outpatient conditions (4.13 points in VAS scale) ; their results also indicate improvement in low back mobility (the obtained values, however, turned out statistically insignificant). Better results can be obtained by combining conventional rehabilitation with the approaches applied in sanatorium treatment, as confirmed by the assessment of each group of patients. CONCLUSIONS: 1. Rehabilitation of patients with lumbar spine pain conditions conducted in spa conditions is a more effective treat-ment method than in an outpatient clinic and should be used universally. 2. Research is indicated to determine the effect of rest in a sanatorium (the ambience) involving low back pain relief.

Religious fundamentalism is associated with hyperactive performance monitoring: ERP evidence from correct and erroneous responses.

The aim of the current study was to examine whether action monitoring is associated with religious fundamentalism. Participants performed a stop-signal task that required response inhibition to a simple auditory tone. The level of their religious fundamentalism was measured on a scale. Analysis with mixed-effects linear models revealed significantly larger error-related negativity, correct-related negativity, and post-error positivity components in individuals scoring higher on religious fundamentalism, pointing to their increased engagement in response monitoring. However, it was not accompanied by improved behavioral performance. The electrophysiological results of our study suggest that individuals high in religious fundamentalism engage more in monitoring for conflict between outcomes of their actions and standards of correct behavior. Our findings also point to a possible association between a fundamentalist mindset and higher levels of negative affect, uncertainty, anxiety, and distress, as measured by response-related brain activity.

Nonword repetition depends on the frequency of sublexical representations at different grain sizes: Evidence from a multi-factorial analysis.

The nonword repetition task (NWR) has been widely used in basic cognitive and clinical research, as well as in clinical assessment, and has been proposed as a clinical marker for Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Yet the mechanisms underlying performance on this task are not clear. This study offers insights into these mechanisms through a comprehensive examination of item-related variables identified in previous research as possibly contributing to NWR scores and through testing the predictive power of each in relation to the others. A unique feature of the study is that all factors are considered simultaneously. Fifty-seven typically developing children were tested with a NWR task containing 150 nonwords differing in length, phonotactic probability, lexical neighbourhood and phonological complexity. The results indicate that phonological processing of novel words draws on sublexical representations at all grain sizes and that these representations are phonological, unstructured and insensitive to morphemehood. We propose a novel index - mean ngram frequency of all phonemes - that best captures the extent to which a nonword draws on sublexical representations. The study demonstrates the primacy of sublexical representations in NWR performance with implications for the nature of the deficit in SLI.