Word learning in two languages: Neural overlap and representational differences

We investigated the neural basis of newly learned words in Spanish as a mother tongue (L1) and English second language (L2). Participants acquired new names for real but unfamiliar concepts both languages over course two days. On day 3, they completed semantic categorization task during fMRI scanning. The results revealed largely overlapping brain regions English. However, showed heightened BOLD response within prefrontal cortex (PFC), due to increased competition existing lexical representations. In contrast, displayed higher activity than primary auditory cortex, which suggests phonological processing more irregular phonological-orthographic mappings. Overall, these suggest that novel are similarly L1 L2, represented regions. differ terms cognitive control processes.