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Distinct cortical areas associated with native and second languages

Nature volume 388, pages 171–174 (1997)Cite this article

Abstract

The ability to acquire and use several languages selectively is a unique and essential human capacity. Here we investigate the fundamental question of how multiple languages are represented in a human brain. We applied functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine the spatial relationship between native and second languages in the human cortex, and show that within the frontal-lobe language-sensitive regions (Broca's area)1,2,3, second languages acquired in adulthood (‘late’ bilingual subjects) are spatially separated from native languages. However, when acquired during the early language acquisition stage of development (‘early’ bilingual subjects), native and second languages tend to be represented in common frontal cortical areas. In both late and early bilingual subjects, the temporal-lobe language-sensitive regions (Wernicke's area)1,2,3 also show effectively little or no separation of activity based on the age of language acquisition. This discovery of language-specific regions in Broca's area advances our understanding of the cortical representation that underlies multiple language functions.

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Figure 1: A representative axial slice from a ‘late’ bilingual subject (A) shows all voxels that pass the multistage statistical criteria at P ≤ 0.0005 as either red (native language) or yellow (second acquired language).
Figure 2: Similar to Fig. 1, an expanded view of the pattern of activity within the superior temporal gyrus (Brodmann's area 22 (refs 2, 3, 18), corresponding to Wernicke's area1,2,3) indicates centroids of activity for the two languages in this posterior language region.
Figure 3: Expanded views of the activity patterns within Brodman's area 44 (and 46 (refs 2, 3, 18), subject B) for each ‘late’ bilingual subjects (A–F) indicate the active regions during the native language task (red) and the second acquired language task (yellow).
Figure 4: All voxels that pass the statistical criteria during the native (red) and acquired (yellow) language tasks (subject (A)) are shown for the anterior region of interest, left, and the posterior region of interest, right, over approximately 3 orders of statistical stringency (P ≤ 0.0002 to P ≤ 0.02).
Figure 5: A representative axial slice from an ‘early’ bilingual subject (G) who learned English and Turkish simultaneously during early childhood shows all voxels that pass the multistage statistical criteria at P ≤ 0.0005.

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Acknowledgements

We thank K. Zakian and D. Ballon for use of the 5× 5 mesh dome resonator, J.Victor, G. Krol, J. Posner, R. Cappiello, M. Ruge, D. Correa, S. Harris, J. Salvagno, P. Kuhl, F. Nottebohm, G. E. Vates and R. DeLePaz for technical assistance and helpful comments, and Y. Popowich, N. Rubin, T.Ozaki, D. R. Moreno, B. Aghazadeh, D. Barbut-Heinemann, D. Orbach, R. Valencia, J. Carton, E. Götte, R. Härtl, O. Torres and M. Li for volunteering as subjects. Supported by the William T. Morris Foundation fellowship, the Tri-Institutional MD/Ph.D Program (KHSK); the Charles A. Dana Foundation, Johnson & Johnson Focused Giving Foundation, Cancer Center Support Grant NCI (J.H.); the C. V. Starr Foundation and the Lookout Fund (N.R.R.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. *Department of Neurology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York, 10021, New York, USA

    Karl H. S. Kim, Kyoung-Min Lee & Joy Hirsch

  2. †Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Cornell University Medical College, 1300 York Avenue, New York, 10021, New York, USA

    Karl H. S. Kim, Norman R. Relkin, Kyoung-Min Lee & Joy Hirsch

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  1. Karl H. S. Kim
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Correspondence to Joy Hirsch.

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Kim, K., Relkin, N., Lee, KM. et al. Distinct cortical areas associated with native and second languages. Nature 388, 171–174 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/40623

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