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Chinese individuals learning English vowels: a hyperscanning paradigm
Poster Session E, Sunday, September 14, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm, Field House
YANG FU1, Anqi Wang2, Fan Cao1; 1the University of Hong Kong, China, 2Flinders University, Australia
Introduction Children typically have an advantage over adults when learning a new language, particularly in pronunciation. Previous researchers proposed that children's brains are more plastic and less influenced by their native language, allowing them to process non-native speech more effectively than adults. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this advantage remain unclear. Most prior studies on speech processing have adopted a single-brain approach, focusing solely on activities within individual brains and have overlooked potential neural coupling between brains. Children's proficiency in processing non-native speech might be reflected in the coupling between their neural activities with those of native speakers’, resulting in higher inter-brain synchronization with native speakers. Method In this study, two native speakers (a Chinese native speaker and an English native speaker) and 45 participants (20 adults and 25 7-year-old children) underwent pseudo-hyperscanning fNIRS. 8 Chinese CV (consonant-vowel) syllables and 8 English CV syllables were used as stimuli. Brain activity and responses of native speakers were collected while they were listening to or speaking their respective native languages. Participants were required to complete two listen sessions (listen to materials/recordings of native speaker) and an imitation session for each language. The interpersonal neural synchronizaiton (INS) between participants and native speakers were calculated during tasks where both parties were listening (listen-listen), both were speaking (speak-speak), or participant was listening to the recordings of the native speaker while the native speaker was speaking (listen-speak). Results Acoustic analysis showed that children imitated English syllables more closely to native speakers than adults did. Participants generally showed higher INS with a native speaker for their native language (Chinese) than foreign language (English). The linear mixed model indicated distinct patterns for Chinese and English across the three tasks. In Chinese, participants exhibited increased INS for the speak-speak and listen-speak condition than the listen-listen condition. Conversely, INS tended to decrease in the speak-speak and listen-speak condition than the listen-listen condition. Further analysis using channel-wise repeated measure ANOVA revealed that adults showed significantly greater INS between the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) of the native speaker than children for the listen-listen condition in English, but not for the speak-speak or listen-speak condition in English. Conclusion The current study suggests that speaking involves greater INS than listening between the two partners when it is the native language. However, speaking a foreign language is characterized by reduced INS with the native speaker compared to listening to the language. Furthermore, children showed less INS than adults for listening the foreign language but not for speaking it. From an INS perspective, we revealed neural mechanism of foreign speech learning and how it is different in adults and children.
Topic Areas: Language Production,