Hebrew Brain vs. English Brain: Language Modulates the Way It Is Processed

“…results challenge the view that considers orthographic, phonological, and semantic sublinguistic units to be the main building blocks of language (Seidenberg & McClelland, 1989), and questions whether morphology should be regarded as a distinct level of lexical architecture or a simple interplay…”

“Hence, models such as the Revised Hierarchical Model (RHM; Kroll & Stewart, 1994 ), or the Bilingual Interactive Activation model (BIA; Dijkstra & Van Heuven, 1998 ), provided a description of how exactly one's native language (L1) and languages learned later in life (L2) conceptual and lexical links constantly intera…”

“Changes in BOLD contrast associated with the different conditions were assessed on a pixel-by-pixel basis using the general linear model (Friston, Frith, Turner, & Frackowiak, 1995 ) with the standard hemodynamic response function (Boynton, Engel, Glover, & Heeger, 1996 ).”

“The OT is known to be involved in form processing (Cohen et al., 2000, 2002; Dehaene, Le Clec, Poline, Le Bihan, & Cohen, 2002; Dehaene et al., 2001).”

“In these ROIs, hemodynamic responses associated with the different conditions were estimated using deconvolution analysis (Glover, 1999).”

“Conforming with the forward-masking paradigm (Forster & Davis, 1984), trials consisted of a sequence of three events: a 500-msec forward mask (########), followed by a prime presented for 33 msec, replaced by 2282 Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience Volume 23, Number 9 D o w n l o a d e d f r o m h t…”

“The OT is known to be involved in form processing (Cohen et al., 2000, 2002; Dehaene, Le Clec, Poline, Le Bihan, & Cohen, 2002; Dehaene et al., 2001).”

“The OT is known to be involved in form processing (Cohen et al., 2000, 2002; Dehaene, Le Clec, Poline, Le Bihan, & Cohen, 2002; Dehaene et al., 2001).”

“Changes in BOLD contrast associated with the different conditions were assessed on a pixel-by-pixel basis using the general linear model (Friston, Frith, Turner, & Frackowiak, 1995 ) with the standard hemodynamic response function (Boynton, Engel, Glover, & Heeger, 1996 ).”

“Our results showing a morphological effect that is not influenced by semantics strengthen Goldʼs conclusions that this region is involved in the structural level of morphological processing that is mainly morpho-orthographic (see Rastle & Davis, 2008 for a detailed review).”

“phology, that is, by root families rather than by simple letter sequences (Frost, 2009; Frost et al., 1997).”

“, 2003) defining theneural correlates involved in the control of language switching (Hernandez, 2009; Abutalebi et al., 2008; Rodriguez-Fornells, Rotte, Heinze, Nosselt, & Munte, 2002).”

“Imaging studies have demonstrated the relation between the neural representation of subjectʼs native language (L1) and languages learned later in life (L2) (e.g., Chee, 2006; Chee, Soon, Lee, & Pallier, 2004; Mahendra, Plante, Magl ire, Milman, & Trouard, 2003; Tan et al., 2003) defining the neural correlates involved…”

“However, other studies demonstrate that morphological processing is clearly modulated by semantic considerations (Diependaele, Sandra, & Grainger, 2005; Giraudo & Grainger, 2001; Feldman, 2000 ).”

“Although our experimental design did not assess directly semantic priming effects (an unrelated condition was not included), the semantic modulation of early morphological effects in English is in accordance with ERP studies demonstrating involvement of semantics at early stages of reading, commonly associated with or…”

“…Chee, 2006; Chee, Soon, Lee, & Pallier, 2004; Mahendra, Plante, Magloire, Milman, & Trouard, 2003; Tanet al., 2003) defining theneural correlates involved in the control of language switching (Hernandez, 2009; Abutalebi et al., 2008; Rodriguez-Fornells, Rotte, Heinze, Nosselt, & Munte, 2002).”

“First, in contrast to the findings reported by Devlin et al. (2004), the present imaging results clearly demonstrate the independent role of morphological processing.”

“Behavioral experiments using masked priming consistently reveal that morphological effects are not modulated by the semantic relation between primes and targets (Frost et al., 1997, 2000).”

“…results regarding the dependence of the morphological effect on semantics: Although some found no effect of semantic transparency (Koester & Schiller, 2008; Lavric et al., 2007), others could not clearly report an effect for semantically opaque morphologically related words (Morris et al., 2007).”

“However, other studies demonstrate that morphological processing is clearly modulated by semantic considerations (Diependaele, Sandra, & Grainger, 2005 ; Giraudo & Grainger, 2001 ; Feldman, 2000 ).”

“, 2007), others could not clearly report an effect for semantically opaque morphologically related words (Morris et al., 2007).”

“However, other studies demonstrate that morphological processing is clearly modulated by semantic considerations (Diependaele, Sandra, &Grainger, 2005; Giraudo&Grainger, 2001; Feldman, 2000).”

“However, other studies demonstrate that morphological processing is clearly modulated by semantic considerations (Diependaele, Sandra, & Grainger, 2005 ; Giraudo & Grainger, 2001 ; Feldman, 2000 ).”

“…morphological processing and semantics, but have again reported contradicting results: Although some found no effect of semantic transparency (Koester & Schiller, 2008; Lavric, Clapp, & Rastle, 2007), others could not clearly report an effect of morphological relatedness for semantically…”

“, 2008, 2010), and in morphosyntactic processing in English (Shapiro et al., 2005; Tyler, Stamatakis, Post, Randall, & Marslen-Wilson, 2005) and Italian (Marangolo, Piras, Galati, & Burani, 2006), as well as in artificial syntax (Forkstam, Hagoort, Fernandez, Ingvar, & Petersson, 2006).”

“These studies compared simple versus complex words (Laine, Rinne, Krause, Teras, & Sipila, 1999), the processing of inflected verbs andnouns (Tyler, Bright, Fletcher,& Stamatakis, 2004), and the processing of regular versus irregular verbs (Beretta et al., 2003) as well as gender judgments (Heim, Alter, & Friederici,…”

“Similar findings were reported by Devlin et al. (2004), and in a revised study, Gold and Rastle (2007) found in the OT a region showing morphologically repetition suppression that could not be explained by semantic or orthographic factors.”

“However, both Bozic, Marslen-Wilson, Stamatakis, Davis, and Tyler ( 2007 ) and Gold and Rastle ( 2007 ) did find regions showing independent morphological processing, but the locations of these regions were inconsistent.”

“Indeed, awareness to the root morpheme and the ability to manipulate it can be found in children from a very early age (Ravid & Malenky, 2001 ; Berman, 1982 ).”

“Several studies have shown that the extent of semantic overlap between two Hebrew words that share the same root (and thus, are morphologically related) does not seem to have any effect on the perception of morphological relatedness (Deutsch, Frost, Pelleg, Pollatsek, & Rayner, 2003 ; Frost, Deutsch, Gilboa, Tannenbau…”

“to the root morpheme and the ability to manipulate it can be found in children from a very early age (Ravid &Malenky, 2001; Berman, 1982).”

“Hence, current opinion posits that although languages differ in the statistical distribution of letters or letter clusters, printed words in English, Spanish, or French are assumed to be processed and recognized alike.”

“cal processing in Hebrew (Bick et al., 2010)—in the lIFG and lMFG—by identifying a common morphological network for both languages (see Methods).”

“Such was conducted recently by Lehtonen et al. (2009), who compared processing of inflectional morphology in Finnish–Swedish bilinguals.”

“The lMFG was shown to be involved in morphological processing in Hebrew (Bick et al., 2008, 2010), and in morphosyntactic processing in English (Shapiro et al., 2005; Tyler, Stamatakis, Post, Randall, & Marslen-Wilson, 2005) and Italian (Marangolo, Piras, Galati, & Burani, 2006), as well as in…”

“Imaging studies have demonstrated the relation between the neural representation of subjectʼs L1 and L2 (e.g., Chee, 2006; Chee, Soon, Lee, & Pallier, 2004; Mahendra, Plante, Magloire, Milman, & Trouard, 2003; Tanet al., 2003) defining theneural correlates involved in the control of language…”

“The question of the possible interactions between the two languages in the bilingual brain has been attracting much attention in recent years (for some examples, see Chee, 2009), and additional research is necessary in order to address this question.”

“…to the role of fusiform gyrus in fine-grained orthographic processing as defined in our account, it is important to note that there is evidence suggesting that sublexical morpho-orthographic processing is performed by neural structures in this region (Bick et al., 2011; Solomyak and Marantz, 2009).”

“ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE published: 29 September 2014 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01070 The effect of script similarity on executive control in bilinguals”

“[141] found that highly proficient Hebrew-English bilinguals activated the L inferior and middle frontal gyri and occipital-temporal regions regardless of language type.”

“…individuals and neurological patients is suggested by previous studies: structural or morphological distinctions in language, such as in Hebrew (Bick et al., 2011) or Chinese (Khachatryan et al., 2016) as compared with English, modulate the activation of language areas in the brain in healthy…”

“Bick, Goelman, and Frost (2011) demonstrated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study that even though bilingual morphological processing involves the same neural circuitry for both languages, the activation is significantly modulated by the (properties of the) language in question.”

“Our findings are consistent with the idea that L2 speakers engage in decomposition of transparent derived verbs rather than processing them holistically.”

“Differences in performance in reading during the early stages of literacy in different orthographic systems is accompanied by a differential involvement of cognitive and linguistic components in the reading process (Bick et al., 2011; Caravolas, Vol ın, & Hulme, 2005; Share, 2008).”

“We conclude that there is no “Hebrew brain” or “English brain” (Bick et al., 2011, p. 2280).”

“(2011) found that processing of morphological information in the bilingual brain is modulated by language-specific structural properties, because within the same Hebrew–English bilinguals, semantic information modulated the activation of morphological neural correlates (areas in the brain recruited while processing mo…”

“Previous fMRI/ MEG studies have highlighted the role of the LOT in r 5857 r morphological processing [Bick et al., 2011; Gold and Rastle, 2007; Lewis et al., 2011].”

“In contrast, the medial frontal gyrus seemed to be consistently activated on words preceded by morphologically irrelevant items rather than those preceded by related words, regardless of the language typological system [162].”

“At a more general level, Farhy et al.’s results suggest that there is no “Hebrew brain” or “English brain” (Bick et al. 2011: 2280) but that in both languages, the processing system for morphologically complex words makes use of the same mechanisms.”

“…neural resources (such as processing tonal vs. non-tonal phonemes), which can give rise to functionally different neural processing profiles for each language in the bilingual brain (e.g., Bick et al., 2011; Mei et al., 2015; Perfetti et al., 2007; Green et al., 2007; Tolentino & Tokowicz, 2011).”

“A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript Table 2 Average accuracy and SD in Hebrew and English for word stimuli in the in scanner task (collapsed across modality), for English L1 (EL1) and Hebrew L1 (HL1) cohorts.”

“…results in pervasive morphological decomposition during lexical access in skilled Hebrew readers (Bentin and Feldman, 1990; Frost et al., 1997; Deutsch et al., 1998, 2000; , 2003; 2005), which is suggested to be different than morphological processing in adult English readers (Bick et al., 2011).”

“, 2003), the Semitic mental lexicon is primarily organized along morphological lines (Bick et al., 2011; Boudelaa & Marslen-Wilson, 2004, 2015; Deutsch et al., 1998).”

“…2009; Pliatsikas, Johnstone, & Marinis, 2014), there is also evidence from non-linearly derived Hebrew words (Bick et al., 2008; Bick et al., 2010; Bick et al., 2011; Bitan et al., 2020) that processing the root morpheme involves left frontal areas, including dorsal LIFG (pars opercularis and…”

“It is noteworthy that in Hebrew-speaking typically developing children and adults, morphological processing occurs irrespective of semantic relatedness (Bick et al., 2011; Frost et al., 1997; Ravid & Malenky, 2001).”

“…approach assuming that the same cognitive factors might contribute differently to reading due to the specific characteristics of the writing systems (Bick et al., 2011; Geva & Siegel, 2000) and to their orthographic transparency (e.g., Lundberg et al., 1988; Pennington et al., 1990; Share, 2008).”

“Recalling that Bick et al. (2011) found that Hebrew shows greater ventral involvement and less dorsal activation than English, it makes sense that L2 readers will initially utilise their L1 reading strategies in reading an L2, but shift to the more optimal strategy as their L2 progresses—an…”