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164 p., El objetivo de esta tesis doctoral es investigar las categorías fonéticas de personas bilingües en sus dos idiomas. La pregunta en la que se fundamenta esta investigación es la siguiente: ¿las personas bilingües cuyos idiomas realizan el contraste de sonoridad (p.e., entre [b] y [p]) de la misma manera (p.e., presonoridad), mantienen el detalle fonético durante la producción y la percepción del habla? A fin de responder a esta pregunta, se han estudiado diferentes grupos de personas bilingües de euskara y castellano a través de cuatro experimentos: un conductual relacionado con la producción del habla, y un conductual y dos de magnetoencefalografía que persiguen investigar la percepción del habla. Esta tesis doctoral presenta evidencia a favor del mantenimiento del detalle fonético en las categorías de sonoridad durante la producción y la percepción del habla por personas bilingües que hablan dos idiomas con presonoridad, en este caso en bilingües de euskara y castellano. Los resultados sugieren que los sistemas fonéticos de los bilingües son más detallados de lo que se consideraba, y destacan la necesidad de desarrollar modelos de habla para bilingües que han adquirido lso dos idiomas a la vez o muy temprano.

188 p., El objetivo general de esta tesis doctoral es estudiar el impacto que factores del contexto lingüístico en el que crecen niñas y niños tienen en su desarrollo del lenguaje. Para ahondar en dicho objetivo, nos centramos en la cantidad y la calidad del input lingüístico que reciben niñas y niños de entre 4 y 7 años, y en cómo se desarrollan sus habilidades del lenguaje a distintos niveles como consecuencia de dicho input.En concreto, la cantidad de input lingüístico está operacionalizada en esta tesis como la proporción de exposición a cada idioma en niños que se desarrollan en un idioma bilingüe euskera-castellano. Respecto a la calidad del estímulo lingüístico, nos centramos en estudiar el habla dirigida a niñas/os (child-directed speech), con el objetivo de estimar si está caracterizada por unas propiedades temporales que puedan facilitar el desarrollo de un sistema fonológico. Tanto la cantidad como la calidad de la exposición lingüística juegan aquí un rol de predictores del desarrollo del lenguaje en distintas áreas, que dividimos de manera amplia en habilidades fonológicas (memoria fonológica a corto plazo y conciencia fonológica) y habilidades no fonológicas, en las que circunscribimos las capacidades léxico-semánticas y sintácticas.En resumen, los tres estudios que forman la presente tesis pueden ser entendidos en una lógica interrelacionada, en la que la cantidad y la calidad de la exposición lingüística juegan un papel crucial en el desarrollo del lenguaje en edades en las que el input oral es crucial, en concreto de 4 a 7 años de edad.

110 p., How does learning cultural systems like language impact cognition and perception? The last few years have seen increased interest into this topic, yet with little theoretical advance. One fundamental question concerns the nature of the neural mechanism through which language affects perceptual processes. Some accounts suggest that effects of language are ¿high-level¿, meaning that language does not affect early perceptual processes, but rather interact at later conceptual or decision-making stages. More recent proposals posit that language can alter perceptual processes at early sensory levels. This latter account is in line with current predictive processing theories of perception, which suggest that sensory processes are largely influenced by prior knowledge and expectation. The present thesis investigates whether and how language shapes perceptual processing. We focus on two specific types of language-perception interactions: (i) the effect of linguistic labels on the recognition of visual object categories; and (ii) the effect of linguistic knowledge on neural processing of rhythmic sounds. Using an interdisciplinary approach combining behavioral measures, human electrophysiology, and advanced statistical methods, we demonstrate that language can impact visual and auditory perception at early stages of processing, shaping how we perceive sensory events. This thesis also offers novel insights into the neurophysiological implementation of predictive processing in the human neocortex.

First published: 27 February 2023, The coordination between the theta phase (3–7 Hz) and gamma power (25–35 Hz) oscillations (namely theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling, PAC) in the auditory cortex has been proposed as an essential neural mechanism involved in speech processing. However, it has not been established how this mechanism is related to the efficiency with which a listener processes speech. Speech processing in a non-native language offers a useful opportunity to evaluate if theta-gamma PAC is modulated by the challenges imposed by the reception of speech input in a non-native language. The present study investigates how auditory theta-gamma PAC (recorded with magnetoencephalography) is modulated in both native and non-native speech reception. Participants were Spanish native (L1) speakers studying Basque (L2) at three different levels: beginner (Grade 1), intermediate (Grade 2), and advanced (Grade 3). We found that during L2 speech processing (i) theta-gamma PAC was more highly coordinated for intelligible compared to unintelligible speech; (ii) this coupling was modulated by proficiency in Basque being lower for beginners, higher for intermediate, and highest for advanced speakers (no difference observed in Spanish); (iii) gamma power did not differ between languages and groups. These findings highlight how the coordinated theta-gamma oscillatory activity is tightly related to speech comprehension: the stronger this coordination is, the more the comprehension system will proficiently parse the incoming speech input.

Humans' extraordinary ability to understand speech in noise relies on multiple processes that develop with age. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we characterize the underlying neuromaturational basis by quantifying how cortical oscillations in 144 participants (aged 5-27 years) track phrasal and syllabic structures in connected speech mixed with different types of noise. While the extraction of prosodic cues from clear speech was stable during development, its maintenance in a multi-talker background matured rapidly up to age 9 and was associated with speech comprehension. Furthermore, while the extraction of subtler information provided by syllables matured at age 9, its maintenance in noisy backgrounds progressively matured until adulthood. Altogether, these results highlight distinct behaviorally relevant maturational trajectories for the neuronal signatures of speech perception. In accordance with grain-size proposals, neuromaturational milestones are reached increasingly late for linguistic units of decreasing size, with further delays incurred by noise., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

First published online: 8 May 2023, This chapter provides an overview of the neural correlates related to second language morphological processing, by integrating recent empirical evidence coming from event-related potentials, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and non-invasive brain stimulation. The chapter shows that the processing of morphological information in second language cannot be seen as an encapsulated phenomenon that can be studied without considering both grammar-related (e.g., first language and second language similarity) and speaker-related factors (e.g., second language immersion, age-of-acquisition). Finally, the chapter proposes that the role of traditional concepts such as native-likeness and second language proficiency might be reconsidered in future research.

This study examines the phonological co-activation of a task-irrelevant language variety in mono- and bivarietal speakers of German with and without simultaneous interpreting (SI) experience during German comprehension and production. Assuming that language varieties in bivarietal speakers are co-activated analogously to the co-activation observed in bilinguals, the hypothesis was tested in the Visual World paradigm. Bivarietalism and SI experience were expected to affect co-activation, as bivarietalism requires communication-context based language-variety selection, while SI hinges on concurrent comprehension and production in two languages; task type was not expected to affect co-activation as previous evidence suggests the phenomenon occurs during comprehension and production. Sixty-four native speakers of German participated in an eye-tracking study and completed a comprehension and a production task. Half of the participants were trained interpreters and half of each sub-group were also speakers of Swiss German (i.e., bivarietal speakers). For comprehension, a growth-curve analysis of fixation proportions on phonological competitors revealed cross-variety co-activation, corroborating the hypothesis that co-activation in bivarietals’ minds bears similar traits to language co-activation in multilingual minds. Conversely, co-activation differences were not attributable to SI experience, but rather to differences in language-variety use. Contrary to expectations, no evidence for phonological competition was found for either same- nor cross-variety competitors in either production task (interpreting- and word-naming variety). While phonological co-activation during production cannot be excluded based on our data, exploring the effects of additional demands involved in a production task hinging on a language-transfer component (oral translation from English to Standard German) merit further exploration in the light of a more nuanced understanding of the complexity of