Brain Correlates of Phonetic Foreign Language Talent

本项目以“外语发音人才的认知神经科学”为研究对象，旨在发现外语发音人才的神经关联，为我们理解语言和语言学习能力的神经生物学基础做出贡献。人们习得外语的天赋、能力、成功程度和速度各不相同，这是一个司空见惯的现象。特别是语音-发音方面似乎是一个特定的子技能，它被认为是单独的神经基质。到目前为止，只有很少的神经影像学研究专门调查了一般的语言天赋，显示了在一般较有天赋/成功的第二语言学习者之间的结构解剖和功能差异。除了这几项针对一般语言天赋的研究外，目前还没有针对语音语言学习能力（发音天赋）的研究。在关于高水平和低水平双语者的文献中，研究第二语言水平和大脑激活之间的关系的研究经常发现，较低的语言水平和较高的第二语言（L2）熟练程度之间存在更多的激活（在强度和/或程度上）和相反的模式。对语言产生的研究，无论熟练程度或语言天赋如何，已经阐明了在第二语言发音过程中特别的左壳核参与（Klein 1994），以及在母语发音过程中反复出现的基底神经节和左岛核参与。在这些前期研究的基础上，以及我们课题组（Ackermann, Dogil, Grodd, Riecker, Hertrich, Mathiak）对正常和神经损伤人群的发音和语言产生的研究，我们阐述了以下研究问题和假设，将通过功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和脑磁图（MEG）来检验。

The present project aims at the investigation of ¿The Cognitive Neuroscience of Foreign Language Pronunciation Talent¿, intending to find the neural correlates of foreign language pronunciation talent, with the far-reaching aim to contribute to our understanding of the neurobiological basis of language and language learning abilities. It is a commonplace observation that people differ in their aptitude, capacity, success and speed of foreign language acquisition. Especially the phonetic-articulatory aspect seems to be a specific subskill for which separate neural substrates have been assumed. So far, only very few neuroimaging studies specifically investigated general language talent, showing structural anatomical and functional differences between generally more and less talented/ successful second language learners. Apart from these few studies examining general language talent, no study so far investigated phonetic language learning ability (pronunciation talent). Within the literature on high versus low proficiency bilinguals, studies investigating correlations between second language proficiency level and brain activation often found more activation (in intensity and / or extent) correlating with lower proficiency level and the reverse patterns for higher second language (L2) proficiency. Research examining language production regardless of the proficiency level or linguistic talent, has elucidated particular left putaminal engagement during second language articulation (Klein 1994) and repeatedly basal ganglia and left insular involvement in native language articulation. On the basis of these prior studies and previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of our research groups (Ackermann, Dogil, Grodd, Riecker, Hertrich, Mathiak) on articulation and language production in normal and neurologically impaired populations, we elaborated the following research questions and hypotheses to be examined by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG).