Reading Shakespearean tropes in a foreign tongue: Age of L2 acquisition modulates neural responses to functional shifts

Vilas, Martina G.; Santilli, Micaela; Mikulan, Ezequiel; Adolfi, Federico; Martorell Caro, Miguel; Manes, Facundo; Herrera, Eduar; Sedeno, Lucas; Ibanez, Agustin; Garcia, Adolfo M.

Abstract

Functional shifts (FSs) - morphosyntactically marked words evoking coherent but novel meanings are ubiquitous in English and, specially, in Shakespearean literature. While their neural signatures have been explored in native speakers, no study has targeted foreign-language users, let alone comparing early and late bilinguals. Here, we administered a validated FS paradigm to subjects from both populations and evaluated time-frequency modulations evoked by FS and control sentences. Early bilinguals exhibited greater sensitivity towards FSs, indexed by reduced fronto-posterior theta-band oscillations across semantic- and structural-integration windows. Such oscillatory modulations may represent a key marker of age-of-acquisition effects during foreign language wordplay processing.

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Título según WOS: Reading Shakespearean tropes in a foreign tongue: Age of L2 acquisition modulates neural responses to functional shifts
Título de la Revista: NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA
Volumen: 124
Editorial: PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
Fecha de publicación: 2019
Página de inicio: 79
Página final: 86
DOI:

10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.01.007

Notas: ISI