Brain and LanguagePub Date : 2025-10-01Epub Date: 2025-07-29DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105613
Shenai Hu , Lin Zhong , Maria Teresa Guasti , Shaowei Li
{"title":"Comprehension and production of relative clauses in Mandarin-speaking children with and without developmental language disorder","authors":"Shenai Hu , Lin Zhong , Maria Teresa Guasti , Shaowei Li","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105613","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105613","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the comprehension and production of relative clauses (RCs) in Mandarin-speaking preschool- and school-age children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Twenty-one children with DLD (aged 4;2–8;4) and 42 typically developing (TD) children (aged 3;10–8;0) were tested. The results revealed that children with DLD showed no asymmetry between subject RCs (SRCs) and object RCs (ORCs) in comprehension, but demonstrated an SRC advantage in production. They performed less accurately than TD children in both SRCs and ORCs, with TD children exhibiting a clear SRC advantage in both comprehension and production. Moreover, children with DLD displayed a discrepancy between comprehension and production of ORCs, and their working memory capacity was positively associated with RC production. These findings provide novel evidence that Mandarin-speaking children with DLD face significant challenges in acquiring both SRCs and ORCs, offering insights into the nature of syntactic deficits in DLD.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"269 ","pages":"Article 105613"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144722378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Modulating language and executive functions in bilingual aphasia with cerebellar tDCS: a case series","authors":"Silke Coemans , Esli Struys , Kyrana Tsapkini , Vânia de Aguiar , Sebastiaan Engelborghs , Jean-Christophe Bier , Philippe Paquier , Stefanie Keulen","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105617","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105617","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This case series explores the effects of cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on language and executive functions in bilinguals with aphasia. We present seven Dutch-French bilingual participants diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) or post-stroke aphasia, including one non-fluent variant PPA (nfvPPA), three logopenic variant PPA (lvPPA), one semantic variant PPA (svPPA), and two post-stroke non-fluent aphasia patients. 20 min of 2 mA anodal tDCS to the right posterolateral cerebellum was combined with speech and language therapy. We administered subtests of the Bilingual Aphasia Test, Boston Naming Test, Stroop, and Attention Network Tests. Cerebellar tDCS compared to sham led to greater enhancement of language recovery in both languages, and inhibitory control, providing evidence for the cerebellum’s role in both language and executive processes. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of cerebellar stimulation as a therapeutic tool in bilingual aphasia, with implications for future research and clinical interventions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"269 ","pages":"Article 105617"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144633871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Brain and LanguagePub Date : 2025-10-01Epub Date: 2025-07-29DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105628
Kerry Danahy Ebert
{"title":"Does working memory independently influence language development in bilingual children? A 30-year reflection","authors":"Kerry Danahy Ebert","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105628","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105628","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In 1992, Harrington posited that working memory is a key constraint on the development of a second language in adults but noted that stronger evidence is needed to establish its independent influence on language. In this paper, I reflect on advances in the study of working memory in bilinguals over the intervening 30 years, focusing on bilingual children. I consider theoretical and methodological changes that avoid confounding language and working memory. Empirical work on the role of working memory in bilingual language development is reviewed, noting that much recent work on this topic considers how language could shape working memory, rather than vice versa. I also discuss evidence from bilingual children with developmental language disorder, a population whose language weaknesses have been partly attributed to working memory constraints. Unifying evidence across bilingual populations – including adults and children, and typical and atypical language learners —is important to continue the field’s advancement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"269 ","pages":"Article 105628"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144722379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Brain and LanguagePub Date : 2025-10-01Epub Date: 2025-07-16DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105619
Helen Zhao , Norbert Vanek , Brian MacWhinney
{"title":"Mental simulation in bilingual and second language processing: New directions in the Competition Model","authors":"Helen Zhao , Norbert Vanek , Brian MacWhinney","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105619","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105619","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"269 ","pages":"Article 105619"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144633870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Brain and LanguagePub Date : 2025-09-01Epub Date: 2025-07-08DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105618
Yuxi Zhou, Qingfang Zhang
{"title":"Dissociating the time courses of age of acquisition effect and word frequency effect during Chinese spoken word production","authors":"Yuxi Zhou, Qingfang Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105618","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105618","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Comprehension and production research robustly demonstrates a processing advantage of early-acquired and more frequent words than late-acquired and infrequent words separately. Because age of acquisition (AoA) and word frequency (WF) are correlated in nature, to what extent both factors jointly and independently affect speech production remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate underlying mechanisms behind AoA and WF effects in Chinese spoken word production with electrophysiological measures. We orthogonally manipulated AoA and WF to examine when and how these variables jointly affect spoken production. Results illustrated an interaction between AoA and WF in a time window of conceptual preparation (around 78–170 ms after picture onset) and subsequently an independent AoA effect at lexical selection (240–322 ms) and a WF effect at phonological encoding (462–566 ms). Our findings therefore provide supports for interactive and isolated origins for AoA and WF effects in speech production.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"268 ","pages":"Article 105618"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144571799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Brain and LanguagePub Date : 2025-09-01Epub Date: 2025-07-04DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105610
Brittany Lee , Sofia E. Ortega , Priscilla M. Martinez , Katherine J. Midgley , Phillip J. Holcomb , Karen Emmorey
{"title":"Neural associations between fingerspelling, print, and signs: An ERP priming study with deaf readers","authors":"Brittany Lee , Sofia E. Ortega , Priscilla M. Martinez , Katherine J. Midgley , Phillip J. Holcomb , Karen Emmorey","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105610","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105610","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fingerspelling is a leading predictor of reading ability for deaf people who use a signed language, but few neuroimaging studies have examined how it supports reading. We used event-related potentials to investigate how fingerspelled words prime printed words. Twenty-four skilled deaf adult readers completed a Go/No-Go task while viewing printed English word targets following related and unrelated primes in one of three conditions: printed English words, American Sign Language (ASL) signs, and fingerspelled words. N400 priming effects were strong across all three conditions. Early N400 effects were similar for printed word primes and fingerspelled word primes, suggesting shared orthographic representations. Late N400 effects were strongest for printed word primes, reflecting less effortful processing when primes and targets were in the same printed modality. These findings provide evidence for cross-language and cross-modal priming between fingerspelled and printed words and underscore the importance of fingerspelling in developing word representations for skilled reading.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"268 ","pages":"Article 105610"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144548427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Brain and LanguagePub Date : 2025-09-01Epub Date: 2025-07-07DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105612
Elena Nicoladis , Josiah Goetze
{"title":"Effects of object familiarity on children’s silent gestures","authors":"Elena Nicoladis , Josiah Goetze","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105612","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105612","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>When gesturing (with or without speech) actions done with objects, young children and adults with apraxia often produce a body-part-as-object (BPO), like an extended finger for a toothbrush. In contrast, older children and neurotypical adults often produce an imagined object (IO), like pretending to hold a toothbrush. The purpose of this study was to test whether IOs are produced when children have a rich conceptual understanding of the functions of an object. If so, children should produce more IOs (relative to BPOs) with familiar than with unfamiliar objects. Children between three and five years old were asked to demonstrate what to do with either familiar or unfamiliar objects. As predicted, the children produced more IOs with familiar than unfamiliar objects. These results are consistent with the argument that children’s handshape when gesturing reflects the richness of their understanding. Developmental change likely occurs as children develop a rich understanding of many objects.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"268 ","pages":"Article 105612"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144571075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Brain and LanguagePub Date : 2025-09-01Epub Date: 2025-07-09DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105614
Brian MacWhinney , Zhe Gao
{"title":"Six advances in research on bilingualism","authors":"Brian MacWhinney , Zhe Gao","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105614","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105614","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the 30 years since the publication of Cognitive Processing in Bilinguals (Harris, 1992), the study of cognitive processing in bilingual speakers has branched out in several new directions. Each of these new directions has involved advances in theories, conceptualizations, methods, and findings. The six new directions we will highlight are these:<ul><li><span>1.</span><span><div>The shift from a focus on experiments with word lists to a focus on utterances,</div></span></li><li><span>2.</span><span><div>Relating models of human performance to Artificial Intelligence (AI) models,</div></span></li><li><span>3.</span><span><div>Understanding patterns of bilingual development across the lifespan,</div></span></li><li><span>4.</span><span><div>The effects of cross-language transfer,</div></span></li><li><span>5.</span><span><div>The shaping of bilingual cognition and age effects through social and motivational forces, and.</div></span></li><li><span>6.</span><span><div>New methods for <em>in vivo</em> online tracking of language learning.</div></span></li></ul></div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"268 ","pages":"Article 105614"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144579306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Brain and LanguagePub Date : 2025-09-01Epub Date: 2025-07-11DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105609
Brian Nestor , Ayah Elaboudi , Sara Milligan , Elizabeth R. Schotter
{"title":"Parafoveally perceived orthographic cues facilitate foveal semantic processing: Evidence from event-related potentials","authors":"Brian Nestor , Ayah Elaboudi , Sara Milligan , Elizabeth R. Schotter","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105609","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105609","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Readers extract information from words viewed parafoveally, but it is unclear whether this processing is limited to orthography or if it extends to lexico-semantic content. In the current ERP study, we measured the N400 responses to words that were perceived parafoveally and/or foveally using the RSVP-with-flankers paradigm and a parafoveal masking manipulation. We compared anomalous orthographically related (neighbor) and unrelated (non-neighbor) words to expected words to determine whether the N400 responses were driven by orthographic and/or semantic processing. We observed a large parafoveal N400 effect in response to the non-neighbors (versus expected), and a smaller, later parafoveal N400 for neighbors, suggesting that the parafoveal response is largely orthographic in nature. We also observed a significant reduction in foveal N400 magnitude when non-neighbor words were previously visible parafoveally (but not for the foveal N400 response to neighbors), suggesting that facilitation of foveal processing is driven by parafoveal detection of orthographic violations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"268 ","pages":"Article 105609"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144605248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Brain and LanguagePub Date : 2025-09-01Epub Date: 2025-07-23DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105615
Luna Filipović
{"title":"Bilingual advantage for memory of events: Why now you see it, now you don’t?","authors":"Luna Filipović","doi":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105615","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105615","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>One of the most important findings in relation to bilingual memory has been that of shared conceptual representation and memory storage. The paper in the original volume that is being honoured here was by Jeanette Altarriba. The present contribution shares and celebrates the themes discussed in that paper, and in the spirit of the current special issue, it also highlights something new about bilingual memory that we know now and that we did not know then. The original discussions are extended by shifting the focus onto a less researched domain, namely how multiple factors of language typology, balanced vs. unbalanced proficiency and dual language activation affect bilingual memory for events. This review paper demonstrates that when it comes to the bilingual advantage for memory of witnessed events, it is very much a case of <em>now you see it, now you don’t</em>, and we explain the reasons behind the different outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55330,"journal":{"name":"Brain and Language","volume":"268 ","pages":"Article 105615"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144686956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}