Reduced frontal activation with increasing 2nd language proficiency

• Published in: Neuropsychologia Vol. 47; no. 13; pp. 2712 - 2720
• Main Authors: Stein, Maria, Federspiel, Andrea, Koenig, Thomas, Wirth, Miranka, Lehmann, Christoph, Wiest, Roland, Strik, Werner, Brandeis, Daniel, Dierks, Thomas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2009; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior - physiology; Anatomical correlates of behavior; Behavioral psychophysiology; Bilingualism; Bilingualism. Multilingualism; Biological and medical sciences; Brain Hemisphere Functions; Brain Mapping; Cortical plasticity; Diagnostic Tests; English; Exchange Programs; Female; fMRI; Foreign Students; Frontal Lobe - physiology; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; German; German as a Second Language Learning; High School Students; Humans; Inferior frontal gyrus; Language; Language Acquisition; Language Processing; Language Proficiency; Lexico-semantic processing; Longitudinal Studies; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Multilingualism; Native Language; Native Speakers; Neural Basis of Language; Oral Reading; Practice (Psychology); Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Second Language Learning; Semantic Processing; Semantics; Time Factors; Vocabulary; fMRI; Bilingualism; Cortical plasticity; Lexico-semantic processing; Inferior frontal gyrus; Human; Cerebral cortex; Central nervous system; Cognition; Activation; Frontal cortex; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; Encephalon; Verbal ability; Language; Semantics; Plasticity; Information processing; Functional imaging

The factors influencing the degree of separation or overlap in the neuronal networks responsible for the processing of first and second language are still subject to investigation. This longitudinal study investigates how increasing second language proficiency influences activation differences durin...