The current study investigates the neurobiological bases of language processing and the influence of physical language signals on neural processing in Chinese English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) learners. The nature of the language input signals is derived from the Verbotonal theory (Guberina, 1972; Guberina and Asp, 1981) as well as other neuroscience findings. The study utilized 320 Hz low-pass filtered and unfiltered sentences in both L1 and L2 as prosodic and linguistic stimuli. These stimuli were organized in the diotic and dichotic listening conditions, including filtered stimuli in both ears (FL-FR), low-pass filtered stimuli in the left ear and unfiltered in the right ear (FL-R), unfiltered stimuli in the left ear and low-pass filtered in the right ear (L-FR), and unfiltered stimuli in both ears (NL-NR). Fifty Chinese university students participated in the study and listened to the stimuli during a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiment using a block design. The results of one-sample and paired-samples t-tests revealed a widely-distributed network involved in L1 and L2 processing, with overlapping brain regions including the bilateral superior temporal gyrus (BA 22 and 41), middle temporal gyrus (BA 21), inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44 and 45), middle frontal gyrus (BA 8 and 9), supramarginal gyrus (BA 40), precentral gyrus (BA 4 and 6), postcentral gyrus (BA 1, 2, and 3), and posterior cerebellar areas. Additionally, distinct cerebral areas associated with acoustic, phonological, linguistic, prosodic processing, attention control, and high-level cognitive control were identified during the processing of the diotic and dichotic signals in L1 and L2. Furthermore, the L1 prosodic signal FL-FR elicited greater engagement in speech processing compared to the L2 prosodic signal. But the L2 prosodic signal resulted in less involvement of sensorimotor and speech processing relative to the L2 linguistic signal, potentially reducing the processing load for L2 processing in Chinese EFL learners. These findings have far-reaching theoretical and practical implications for language education.

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Abstract Summary
The current study investigates the neurobiological bases of language processing and the influence of physical language signals on neural processing in Chinese EFL learners. The study utilized 320 Hz low-pass filtered and unfiltered sentences in both L1 and L2 as prosodic and linguistic stimuli based on the Verbotonal theory and organized in the diotic and dichotic listening conditions. The results revealed a widely-distributed network involved in L1 and L2 processing, with overlapping and distinct brain regions associated with acoustic, phonological, linguistic, prosodic processing, attention control, and high-level cognitive control during the processing of the diotic and dichotic signals in L1 and L2. These outcomes have far-reaching theoretical and practical implications for language education.

Authors:
Xirui Cai, Kunming Medical University, China

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Xirui Cai is a University Assistant Professor/Lecturer at Kunming Medical University in China

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