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Project

Language co-activation in the bilingual mind: Insights from primary progressive aphasia

When bilinguals process words in one language, words from the nontarget language are automatically co-activated. Some models assume that there is a direct link at the form level from the word in one language to its translation equivalent in the non-target language (e.g., dog – hond), which results in co-activation. Another possibility is that activation flows across languages indirectly via a (partially) shared semantic representation (e.g., dog – ‘a domestic animal with four legs’ – hond). In a novel approach to the investigation of language co-activation, we propose to use event-related potentials and fMRI to examine these processes in bilingual patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA). PPA is a neurological disorder that involves progressive degeneration of brain regions associated with language processing. The language representations that are impacted depend on the brain regions that are affected; there is a double dissociation between patients with semantic deficits versus those with phonological deficits. This dissociation enables us to determine which representations are critical for activation to spread across languages. We also plan to examine language co-activation by indexing generalization of a language intervention in the patients’ dominant versus non-dominant language. Overall, the results will inform theoretical models of bilingualism and provide a foundation for evidence-based therapy approaches for bilinguals with PPA

Date:1 Oct 2020 →  30 Jun 2023
Keywords:bilingualism, primary progressive aphasia, ERPs
Disciplines:Clinical linguistics, Cognitive processes, Cognitive neuroscience, Neurological and neuromuscular diseases, Psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics