Two experiments were conducted to investigate the differences in perceptual representations among multilingual individuals. In Experiment 1, the immediate sentence-picture verification paradigm was used to investigate perceptual representations in the working memory stage. The results suggest a match effect within the first language (Cantonese), but not within the second language (Mandarin) or the third language (English), showing perceptual representations only in first language comprehension. In Experiment 2, the delayed sentence-picture verification paradigm was used to investigate perceptual representations in long-term memory. Similarly, the results suggest a match effect within the first language (Mandarin), but not within the second language (English). The findings of both experiments suggest that the first language was perceptually represented, regardless of whether it was Cantonese or Mandarin, regardless of the processing in working memory or long-term memory. No evidence was found for perceptual representations in the later-learned languages, regardless of high or low proficiency. Our study has implications for theories of language comprehension and embodied cognition.

Many studies have shown that mental simulation may occur during language comprehension. Supporting evidence is derived from the matching effects in the sentence-picture verification (SPV) task often used to assess mental simulations of object properties, such as size, orientation, and shape. However, mixed results have been obtained regarding object colour, with researchers reporting matching or mismatching effects. This study investigated the impact of colour information clarity within sentences on the process of mental simulation during language comprehension. Employing the SPV task and using novel objects, we examined whether there is a mental simulation of colour after excluding typical/atypical colour bias and how varying levels of colour information clarity in sentences influence the emergence of matching effects at different stages of comprehension. To address these issues, we conducted two experiments. In Experiment 1, the participants read normal sentences and subsequently engaged in picture verification with a novel object after a 500 ms delay. In Experiment 2, the participants encountered sentences containing both clear and unclear colour information and, after either a 0 ms or 1500 ms interval, completed picture verification tasks with a novel object. Null effects were found in the 500 ms condition for normal sentences and the 0 ms condition for unclear colour information sentences. A mismatching effect appeared in the 0 ms condition after clear colour information sentences, and a matching effect appeared in the 1500 ms condition for all sentences. The results indicated that after excluding colour bias, the participants still formed mental simulations of colour during language comprehension. Our results also indicated that ongoing colour simulation with time pressure impacted the participant responses. The participants ignored unclear colour information under time pressure, but without time pressure, they constructed simulations that were as detailed as possible, regardless of whether the implicit colour information in the sentence was clear.

Previous research has mapped out the brain regions that respond to semantic stimuli presented visually and auditorily, but there is debate about whether semantic representation is modality-specific (only written or only spoken) or modality-invariant (both written and spoken). The mechanism of semantic representation underlying native (L1) and second language (L2) comprehension in different modalities as well as how this mechanism is influenced by L2 proficiency, remains unclear. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from the OpenNEURO database to calculate neural pattern similarity across native and second languages (Spanish and English) for different input modalities (written and spoken) and learning sessions (before and after training). The correlations between behavioral performance and cross-language pattern similarity for L1 and L2 were also calculated. Spanish-English bilingual adolescents (N = 24; ages 16-17; 19 girls) participated in a 3-month English immersion after-school program. As L2 proficiency increased, greater cross-language pattern similarity between L1 and L2 spoken words was observed in the left pars triangularis. Cross-language pattern similarity between L1 and L2 written words was observed in the right anterior temporal lobe. Brain-behavior correlations indicated that increased cross-language pattern similarity between L1 and L2 written words in the right anterior temporal lobe was associated with L2 written word comprehension. This study identified an effective neurofunctional predictor related to L2 written word comprehension.

Previous research has shown that individual experiences and experimental tasks can influence the occurrence of mental simulation during sentence comprehension. However, little research has focused on the effect of sentence focus on mental simulation and its temporal dynamics. Sentence focus refers to the hierarchical structure of information within a sentence, where focused information represents the most prominent and essential information. In contrast, nonfocused information provides a background for the focused information. The present study investigated whether sentence focus would affect the activity of the motor system in language comprehension and at which stage the effect of sentence focus occurred. We measured spontaneous arm muscle electrical activity by surface electromyography (sEMG) while participants read action-focused, nonaction-focused, and control sentences. We observed greater spontaneous muscle electrical activity in the flexor common muscle of the fingers when participants read action-focused sentences compared to nonaction-focused and control sentences. Additionally, there was an interactive trend between sentence type and time, spontaneous muscle electrical activity while reading action-focused sentences was observed in both early (1 ms to 300 ms after the presentation of the action phrase) and late time windows (901 ms to 1500 ms after the action phrase). The findings suggest that the motor system exhibits flexible engagement during language comprehension and the impact of sentence focus on motor system activity may be throughout both the lexical-semantic retrieval and sentence-meaning integration stages.

The resting state functional network is highly variable across individuals. However, inter-individual differences in functional networks evoked by language tasks and their comparison with resting state are still unclear. To address these two questions, we used T1 anatomical data and functional brain imaging data of resting state and a story comprehension task from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) to characterize functional network variability and investigate the uniqueness of the functional network in both task and resting states. We first demonstrated that intrinsic and task-induced functional networks exhibited remarkable differences across individuals, and language tasks can constrain inter-individual variability in the functional brain network. Furthermore, we found that the inter-individual variability of functional networks in two states was broadly consistent and spatially heterogeneous, with high-level association areas manifesting more significant variability than primary visual processing areas. Our results suggested that the functional network underlying language comprehension is unique at the individual level, and the inter-individual variability architecture of the functional network is broadly consistent in language task and resting state.

This study investigated how local gender stereotype information interacts with discourse context during Chinese discourse reading. Event-related potentials were recorded while participants read two-sentence discourses, in which the first sentence provided the discourse context that either introduced a gender stereotype-countering attitude towards roles, such as \"One should strive for the target job, and getting a job should not be restricted by gender\"., or was neutral. The second sentence contained the critical clause in which the stereotypical gender of the object noun (a role name) was either consistent or inconsistent with the gender specified by the head noun (a kinship term) of the subject noun phrase, as in \"Li\'s [daughter/son] became a nurse…\". The object nouns elicited a larger N400 and a larger late negativity (LN) for the inconsistent compared to the consistent conditions in the neutral contexts. Crucially, when the discourse context offered information countering gender stereotypes, both the N400 and LN effects were reversed, with the negativities being smaller for the inconsistent compared to the consistent conditions. The reversal of the N400 effects suggests that discourse contexts can immediately override the processing of gender stereotypes, and thus readers compute discourse context and local pragmatic information simultaneously during discourse reading.

Human communication not only involves the need to switch between the modalities of speaking and listening, but for bilinguals, it can also involve switching between languages. It is unknown as to whether modality and language switching share underlying control mechanisms or whether one type of switching affects control processes involved in the other. The present study uses behavioral and fMRI measures to examine neural circuits of control during communicative situations that required Chinese-English bilinguals to switch between modalities and their two languages according to associated color cues. The results showed that for both language and modality control, similar brain regions were recruited during speech production and comprehension. For modality control, the specific control processes partly depended on the corresponding modality. Finally, switching between modalities appears to exert more influence on language control in production compared to comprehension. These findings offer a first detailed characterization of the neural bases involved in control mechanisms in bilingual communication.

Idioms are semantically non-compositional multiword units whose meanings often go beyond literal interpretations of their component words (e.g., break the ice, kick the bucket, spill the beans). According to hybrid models of idiom processing, idioms are subject to both direct retrieval from the lexicon in early stages of processing, and word-by-word compositional reanalysis in later stages of comprehension. However, a less clear aspect is how disrupting an idiom\'s canonical form, and thus its direct retrieval, impacts the time course of comprehension. In this eye-tracking reading study, healthy English-French bilingual adults with English as their dominant language read sentences containing English idioms in their canonical form (e.g., break the ice), or in a switched form where the phrase-final noun was translated into French (e.g., break the glace). Thus, within this manipulation, momentary language switches modified the canonical form of idioms, while at the same time minimally altering the semantics of their component words, thus nudging readers towards a compositional processing route. Analyses of eye-movement data revealed switching costs in longer reading times at early (but not late) processing stages for idioms compared to matched literal phrases. Interestingly, the cost of language switching was attenuated by the availability of a translationally equivalent idiom in the non-target language (French, e.g., briser la glace). Taken together, these results suggest that direct retrieval is the preferential route in the comprehension of idioms\' canonical forms, which acts as an effective repair strategy by the language-processing system when recovering the underlying form of modified idioms.

When a homonym (e.g., bark) is encountered in a sentential context that biases its interpretation towards a less frequent meaning, subsequent interpretations of the word are more likely to favour that subordinate meaning. Such word-meaning priming effects have been shown to be maintained via sleep-related consolidation, leading some to suggest that declarative memory systems play a crucial role in language comprehension, providing a relatively enduring contextually bound memory trace for the ambiguous word. By this account, word-meaning priming effects should be observable for all words, not just homonyms. In three experiments, participants were exposed to non-homonym targets (e.g., \"balloon\") in sentences that biased interpretation towards a specific aspect of the word\'s meaning (e.g., balloon‑helium vs. balloon-float). After a ~ 10-30 min delay, the targets were presented in relatedness judgement and associate production tasks to assess whether the sentential contexts enhanced access to the primed aspect of the word\'s meaning. The results reveal that word-meaning priming effects do extend to non-homonyms. Indeed, there was also some evidence of a more generalised priming that did not rely on prior presentation of the non-homonym itself. We argue that context-specific interpretations of words are maintained during recognition in order to facilitate comprehension over longer periods.

Language comprehension requires the processing of both linguistic and extra-linguistic information, such as syntax, semantics, and pragmatic information. Previous studies have systematically examined the interplay between syntactic and semantic processing. However, there is a lack of data on how pragmatic processing proceeds and its interaction with semantic processing. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), the present study manipulated the semantic coherence of a verb phrase (VP) and the respect consistency of the object noun phrase in the VP, resulting in four types of critical sentences. Participants read 160 critical Chinese sentences and 220 filler sentences. After electroencephalogram recordings, they completed the Autism Quotient Communication (AQ-Comm) subscale and a sentence acceptability rating task. The ERP results showed that respect violation elicited a larger N400 response and a late negative activity in the pragmatically less-skilled subgroup (as indexed by higher scores on the AQ-Comm subscale). In contrast, respect violation elicited a P600 response in the pragmatically skilled subgroup (as indexed by lower scores on the AQ-Comm subscale). The double violation condition elicited an ERP pattern that was similar to that of the semantic violation condition in both subgroups, suggesting that respect violation effects were present only when the VP was semantically coherent. These results suggest that semantic violation can preclude readers from engaging in pragmatic inferencing, regardless of the participants\' pragmatic skills. Strategies for resolving respect violation and corresponding brain activities vary according to participants\' pragmatic abilities.
BACKGROUND: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11571-021-09700-2.