Syntactic processing of reversible passives in proficient learners of English: a neurolinguistic investigation

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the syntactic processing of reversible passives in healthy adults, highly proficient learners of English using a neurolinguistic approach. The 2x2 experimental design is within-subjects, characterized by a sentence-picture verification task with event-related stimuli: participants saw pictures of transitive reversible events and, along with the illustration, they heard a recording reproducing either a passive or an active sentence describing the event. Participants were asked to decide whether the sentence and the picture matched. The independent variables were sentence structure (passive/active) and sentence-picture matching (match/mismatch), resulting in four different conditions. Reaction times and accuracy were collected for each condition. We predict larger reaction times in mismatching trials, with a possible interaction of sentence structure. Together with behavioural responses, neuroimaging data were collected through functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The fNIRS montage covered frontal and temporal areas bilaterally. The use of this non-invasive neuroimaging technique could help shed a light on the neural activations of syntactic processing in healthy adults who are highly proficient in a second language. Based on previous studies (Scherer et al, 2012; Mack et al., 2013), we predict activation in the left frontal areas during the processing of more complex sentences (mismatch condition and passive sentences), with stronger activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44 e 45). We also predict activation in the contralateral area (RIFG) in conditions with higher processing demands.