Hyeonjeong Jeong

Tohoku University | Tohokudai · Graduate School of international Cultural Studies and Department of Human Brain Science, Institute of Development, Aging, and Cancer

In this study of native Korean trilinguals we examined the effect of syntactic similarity between first (L1) and second (L2) languages on cortical activation during the processing of Japanese and English, which are, respectively, very similar to and different from Korean. Subjects had equivalent proficiency in Japanese and English. They performed a...

This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify differences in the neural processes underlying direct and semidirect interviews. We examined brain activation patterns while 20 native speakers of Japanese participated in direct and semidirect interviews in both Japanese (first language [L1]) and English (second language [L2]...

Communicative speech is a type of language use that involves goal-directed action targeted at another person based on social interactive knowledge. Previous studies regarding one's first language (L1) have treated the theory of mind system, which is associated with understanding others, and the sensorimotor system, which is associated with action s...

For centuries, adults may have relied on pedagogies that promote rote memory for the learning of foreign languages through word associations and grammar rules. This contrasts sharply with child language learning which unfolds in socially interactive contexts. In this paper, we advocate an approach to study the social brain of language by grounding...

Humans learn languages in real-life situations by integrating multiple signals, including linguistic forms, their meanings, and the actions and intentions of speakers. However, little is known about the neural bases underlying the social learning of a second language (L2) in adults. In this study, 36 adults were asked to learn two sets of L2 spoken...

This chapter will focus on the acquisition of Chinese “Verb + Complement” resultative compound verbs. Chinese resultative compound verbs are among the most difficult forms for Japanese first language (L1) speakers, although Japanese also has a rich system of compound verbs. This phenomenon is observed in the L1 Chinese Japanese learner corpus. It i...

This study examined the impact of word order on the sentence processing of native (N = 29) and non-native (N = 27) Korean speakers. We manipulated word order, noun phrase animacy, and marker use and used a self-paced reading task to measure sentence processing time. On each reading task, participants identified nominatives of sentences in a five-po...

Explicit and implicit knowledge Declarative and procedural memory Elicited imitation task Automaticity fMRI a b s t r a c t Development of valid tasks that tap into implicit knowledge is a prerequisite for understanding the interface between explicit and implicit grammatical knowledge in second language (L2) acquisition. However, the extent to whic...

Emerging sociolinguistic studies show that when listeners rate utterances varying in prosodic impressions of politeness (e.g., level of sincerity, friendliness), foreign-accented speech tends to be assessed as carrying less emotive meaning than native speech. These perceptual findings suggest that hearing a foreign accent alters the listener’s abil...

In this study, neural representation of adult second language (L2) speakers’ implicit grammatical knowledge was investigated. Advanced L2 speakers of Japanese living in Japan, as well as L1 Japanese speakers, performed a word-monitoring task (proposed as an implicit knowledge test) in the MRI scanner. Behavioral measures were obtained from aptitude...

Extending the paradigm in L1 acquisition, scholars have begun to investigate whether participants' domain-general ability to represent, encode, and integrate spectral and temporal dimensions of sounds (i.e., auditory processing) could be a potential determinant of the outcomes of post-pubertal L2 speech learning. The current study set out to test t...

Bilingual language switching and its link to domain-general executive functions have been studied in the domain of language production, but they are seldom examined from the perspective of language comprehension. This study examined language switching using a language comprehension paradigm, and further discussed the role of working memory and inhi...

Socio-pragmatic factors, such as social roles and language experience, could be key variables influencing language processing. However, little is known regarding the neural correlates of syntactic processing mediated by socio-pragmatic factors. Honorific agreement in Japanese is well-suited for the investigation of this issue. Japanese honorifics a...

The extent to which grammatical representation and processing in second language (L2) rely on the same brain networks as Õrst language (L1) is a fundamental issue. Previous neuroimaging studies showed that L1 grammatical processing recruits several key brain regions, such as the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and posterior superior temporal gyr...

Objective Although brain structural studies have demonstrated the neural correlates of neuroticism, the outcomes are not easily identified because of the various possible brain regions involved, low statistical power (low number of subjects), and brain structural measures available, such as mean diffusivity (MD), which are more suitable than standa...

This study aims to examine the neural mechanisms of resolving response competition during bilingual word recognition in the context of language intermixing. During fMRI scanning, Chinese–Japanese unbalanced bilinguals were required to perform a second-language (L2) lexical decision task composed of cognates, interlingual homographs, matched control...

Flow is a highly motivated and affectively positive state in which a person is deeply engaged in an activity and feeling enjoyment from it. In collaborative activities, it would be optimal if all participants were in a state of flow. However, flow states fluctuate amongst individuals due to differences in the dynamics of motivation and cognition. T...

Shadowing and reading aloud both involve multiple complex cognitive processes, and both are considered effective methods for second-language learning. The working memory system, particularly the phonological loop, has been suggested to be involved in shadowing and reading aloud. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a 4-week i...

Working memory (WM) and language analytic ability (LAA) are considered important cognitive factors in second language (L2) grammar learning, but it is not clear which contributes more particularly with different types of grammatical rules. Previous studies have focused on grammatical rules that rely on form, but there are no studies investigating W...

This study explores neural mechanisms underlying how prior knowledge gained from pre-listening transcript reading helps comprehend fast-rate speech in a second language (L2) and applies to L2 learning. Top-down predictive processing by prior knowledge may play an important role in L2 speech comprehension and improving listening skill. By manipulati...

Neuropsychology and neuroimaging studies provide distinct views on the key neural underpinnings of social scene understanding (SSU): the amygdala and multimodal neocortical areas such as the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), respectively. This apparent incongruity may stem from the difference in the assumed cognitive processes of the situa...

Working memory (WM) training (WMT), aerobic exercise training (AET), and dual-task training improve cognitive functions and alter neural systems in older adults. In particular, the effects have been investigated of dual-task training that combines a walking or standing activity (balance exercise) simultaneously performed with cognitive training (wh...

Physical synchrony has been suggested to have positive effects on not only concurrent but also subsequent communication, but the underlying neural processes are unclear. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning, we tested the effects of preceding physical synchrony on subsequent dyadic teaching-learning communication. Thirt...

Guilt, a self-conscious emotion, includes self-focused role taking and also correlates with other-oriented role-taking. Excess guilt proneness might be relevant to obsessive compulsive disorders. The white matter (WM) neural correlates of the degree of guilt have not yet been determined. We hypothesized that the WM structures involved in feelings o...

Physical synchrony has been suggested to have positive effects on not only concurrent but also subsequent communication, but the underlying neural processes are unclear. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning, we tested the effects of preceding physical synchrony on subsequent dyadic teaching-learning communication. Thirt...

Collectivism is an important factor for coping with stress in one’s social life. To date, no imaging studies have revealed a direct association between collectivism and white matter structure. Collectivism is positively related to independence, harm avoidance, rejection sensitivity, cooperativeness, external locus of control, and self-monitoring an...

Time-compressed speech is an artificial form of rapidly presented speech. Training with time-compressed speech (TCSSL) in a second language leads to adaptation toward TCSSL. Here, we newly investigated the effects of 4 weeks of training with TCSSL on diverse cognitive functions and neural systems using the fractional amplitude of spontaneous low-fr...

Supplemental online material details of the design of the present experiment.

General self-efficacy (GSE) is an important factor in education, social participation, and medical treatment. However, the only study that has investigated the direct association between GSE and a neural correlate did not identify specific brain regions, rather only assessed brain structures, and included older adult subjects. GSE is related to mot...

Communicative speech is a type of language use that involves goal-directed action targeted at another person based on social interactive knowledge. Previous studies regarding one's first language (L1) have treated the theory of mind system, which is associated with understanding others, and the sensorimotor system, which is associated with action s...

Although the prevalence of chronic fatigue is approximately 20% in healthy individuals, there are no studies of brain structure that elucidate the neural correlates of fatigue outside of clinical subjects. We hypothesized that fatigue without evidence of disease might be related to changes in the basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex and be implicate...

When sounds occur with temporally structured patterns, we can feel a rhythm. To memorize a rhythm, perception of its temporal patterns and organization of them into a hierarchically structured sequence are necessary. On the other hand, rhythm perception can often cause unintentional body movements. Thus, we hypothesized that rhythm information can...

Older children are more successful at producing unfamiliar, non-native speech sounds than younger children during the initial stages of learning. To reveal the neuronal underpinning of the age-related increase in the accuracy of non-native speech production, we examined the developmental changes in activation involved in the production of novel spe...

We investigated the neural mechanisms underlying the ability to cope in atypical or novel situations using tools. We hypothesized that two cognitive components support this ability: adaptive coordination (for adapting to situational demands) and cognitive inhibition (for inhibiting the incongruent actions afforded by tools). We had subjects choose...

The concept of "social self" is often described as a representation of the self-reflected in the eyes or minds of others. Although the appearance of one's own face has substantial social significance for humans, neuroimaging studies have failed to link self-face recognition and the likely neural substrate of the social self, the medial prefrontal c...

Mate choice is an example of sophisticated daily decision making supported by multiple componential processes. In mate-choice literature, different characteristics of the value dimensions, including the sex difference in the value dimensions, and the involvement of self-assessment due to the mutual nature of the choice, have been suggested. We exam...

Second language (L2) acquisition necessitates learning and retrieving new words in different modes. In this study, we attempted to investigate the cortical representation of an L2 vocabulary acquired in different learning modes and in cross-modal transfer between learning and retrieval. Healthy participants learned new L2 words either by written tr...

Humans extract behaviorally significant meaning from a situation by integrating meanings from multiple components of a complex daily environment. To determine the neural underpinnings of this ability, the authors performed functional magnetic resonance imaging of healthy subjects while the latter viewed naturalistic scenes of two people and an obje...

Daily situations involve many objects and behaviors. To comprehend the meaning of situations, the relationships between objects, behaviors, and the situational context are important. To reveal the cortical networks involved in processing these relationships we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare brain activation during processing...

The ability of visual self-recognition in animals and infants is considered a hallmark of the domain-general cognitive representation of the self, which also underpins higher social ability. Cortical regions activated during self-face recognition in human adults have been accordingly expected to play the domain-general role in self-processing. Howe...

To understand implicit social meanings, the interaction of literal meanings and relevant information in a situational context is important. However, previous studies have not investigated such contextual interactions. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated cortical mechanisms underlying the processing of implicit meanin...

Communicative speech requires conformity not only to linguistic rules but also to behavior that is appropriate for social interaction. The existence of a special brain mechanism for such behavioral aspects of communicative speech has been suggested by studies of social impairment in autism, and it may be related to communicative vocalization in ani...

The goal of this study was to examine the effect of the linguistic distance between a first language (L1) and a second language (L2) on neural activity during second language relative to first language processing. We compared different L1–L2 pairs in which different linguistic features characterize linguistic distance. Chinese and Korean native spe...

Multiple brain networks may support visual self-recognition. It has been hypothesized that the left ventral occipito-temporal cortex processes one's own face as a symbol, and the right parieto-frontal network processes self-image in association with motion-action contingency. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we first tested these hypoth...

The question of whether the bilingual brain processes a first and second language (L1 and L2, respectively) differently is a central issue in many psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic studies. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate whether late bilinguals process structurally complex sentences in L1 and L2 in di...