Language-invariant verb processing regions in Spanish–English bilinguals

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Fla.), 2011-07, Vol.57 (1), p.251-261
• Main Authors: Willms, Joanna L., Shapiro, Kevin A., Peelen, Marius V., Pajtas, Petra E., Costa, Albert, Moo, Lauren R., Caramazza, Alfonso
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activity patterns; Anatomy; Bilingualism; Brain - physiology; Brain architecture; Brain injury; Brain Mapping; Cortex; Female; fMRI; Frontal gyrus; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Grammatical class; Humans; Hypotheses; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Information processing; Language; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical imaging; Multilingualism; MVPA; Neuroimaging; Presupplementary motor area; Semantics; Speech Perception - physiology; Studies; Supplementary motor area; Temporal gyrus; Verbs; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.04.021

Nouns and verbs are fundamental grammatical building blocks of all languages. Studies of brain-damaged patients and healthy individuals have demonstrated that verb processing can be dissociated from noun processing at a neuroanatomical level. In cases where bilingual patients have a noun or verb deficit, the deficit has been observed in both languages. This suggests that the noun–verb distinction may be based on neural components that are common across languages. Here we investigated the cortical organization of grammatical categories in healthy, early Spanish–English bilinguals using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a morphophonological alternation task. Four regions showed greater activity for verbs than for nouns in both languages: left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LMTG), left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG), pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), and right middle occipital gyrus (RMOG); no regions showed greater activation for nouns. Multi-voxel pattern analysis within verb-specific regions showed indistinguishable activity patterns for English and Spanish, indicating language-invariant bilingual processing. In LMTG and LMFG, patterns were more similar within than across grammatical category, both within and across languages, indicating language-invariant grammatical class information. These results suggest that the neural substrates underlying verb-specific processing are largely independent of language in bilinguals, both at the macroscopic neuroanatomical level and at the level of voxel activity patterns. ► Spanish–English bilinguals complete noun and verb phrases in English and in Spanish. ► We compare fMRI activity patterns using univariate and multivariate analyses. ► In left posterior MTG and left MFG, verb patterns are consistent across languages.