Recognition of Second Language Spoken Words, Signs, and Characters Via Perception and Production in Adults

How Motor Cortex Supports L2 Acquisition of Spoken Words, Signs, and Characters Via Perception and Production

Self-production facilitates acquisition of spoken words, signs, and characters from an unfamiliar second language. The proposed work investigates how motor cortex, a key part of the brain enabling body action, supports their acquisition via production as well as perception, providing insight into whether they are learned via mental simulation of the body actions used to produce them. It is hypothesized that activity in motor cortex will differ based on the body part used to produce lexical items (e.g., mouth vs. hands), will be greater for lexical items learned via production than observation, and will differentiate lexical items recognized successfully vs. unsuccessfully.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Second Language Acquisition in Healthy Young Adults
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Self-production

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 120
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Laura Morett, Ph.D.; Phone Number: 205-348-8489; Email: lmorett@ua.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Alabama
    • Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, 35487
      • University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 16 years to 33 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Right-handed
• Native English speaker

Exclusion Criteria:

• Knowledge of sign language or languages with logographic characters
• Hearing or vision impairments
• Speech, language, or learning disorders
• Unsecured metal body implants

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Self-production; L2 lexical items self-produced at learning	Behavioral: Self-production; After participants learn L2 lexical items via hearing or observing them paired with L1 translations, they are prompted to produce them themselves
Active Comparator: Perception; L2 lexical items heard or observed an additional time at learning	Behavioral: Self-production; After participants learn L2 lexical items via hearing or observing them paired with L1 translations, they are prompted to produce them themselves

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Functional activity in motor cortex location, 5 min, recognition	Location of Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signal in motor cortex at recognition	5 minutes after learning
Functional activity in motor cortex degree, 5 min, recognition	Degree of Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signal in motor cortex at recognition	5 minutes after learning
Functional activity in motor cortex location, 1 week, recognition	Location of Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signal in motor cortex at recognition	1 week after learning
Functional activity in motor cortex degree, 1 week, recognition	Degree of Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signal in motor cortex at recognition	1 week after learning

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
• Collaborators: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Laura Morett, Ph.D., University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Anticipated): August 23, 2023
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): May 8, 2026
• Study Completion (Anticipated): May 8, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 30, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 17, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): October 20, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 20, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 17, 2022
• Last Verified: September 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Second language; Word learning; Self-production
• Other Study ID Numbers: L2WordProd

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: Yes
• IPD Plan Description: All individual participant data (IPD) underlying results in publications (de-identified)
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Immediately upon publication
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Publicly available
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: Study Protocol; Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP); Analytic Code

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No