Age of Acquisition Modulates Alpha Power During Bilingual Speech Comprehension in Noise

Abstract

Research on bilingualism has grown exponentially in recent years. However, the comprehension of speech in noise, given the ubiquity of both bilingualism and noisy environments, has seen only limited focus. Electroencephalogram (EEG) studies in monolinguals show an increase in alpha power when listening to speech in noise, which, in the theoretical context where alpha power indexes attentional control, is thought to reflect an increase in attentional demands. In the current study, English/French bilinguals with similar second language (L2) proficiency and who varied in terms of age of L2 acquisition (AoA) from 0 (simultaneous bilinguals) to 15 years completed a speech perception in noise task. Participants were required to identify the final word of high and low semantically constrained auditory sentences such as “Stir your coffee with a spoon” vs. “Bob could have known about the spoon” in both of their languages and in both noise (multi-talker babble) and quiet during electrophysiological recording. We examined the effects of language, AoA, semantic constraint, and listening condition on participants’ induced alpha power during speech comprehension. Our results show an increase in alpha power when participants were listening in their L2, suggesting that listening in an L2 requires additional attentional control compared to the first language, particularly early in processing during word identification. Additionally, despite similar proficiency across participants, our results suggest that under difficult processing demands, AoA modulates the amount of attention required to process the second language.

Effects of Age on the Auditory Cortex During Speech Perception in Noise: Evidence From Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

“…We identified a significant negative correlation between age and beta value when the SNR was 0 dB. This suggests that the central auditory processing ability to recognize speech in noise decreases with age, even though the hearing threshold remains normal ( Presacco et al 2019 ; Mankowska et al 2020 ; Grant et al 2022 ). However, no significant correlation between age and beta value was detected in other SNR experiments.…”

“…However, there are several limitations associated with these previous studies. First, most of these previous studies were based on a comparison between only two age groups and did not consider continuous analysis involving youths, middle-aged individuals, and elderly individuals ( Manan et al 2015 , 2018 ; Grant et al 2022 ). Second, the characteristics of low spatial resolution made it very difficult to locate specific targets for electroencephalography studies ( Alain et al 2014 ; van Noordt & Willoughby 2021 ).…”

The Involvement of Listening Effort in Explaining Bilingual Listening Under Adverse Listening Conditions

“…In addition to pupillometry, various other physiological techniques have been suggested to capture differences in effort. For example, changes in cardiac responses (e.g., Mackersie & Calderon-Moultrie, 2016; Mackersie & Cones, 2011; Seeman & Sims, 2015), hormonal activity (e.g., Jahncke & Halin, 2012), or skin conductance responses (e.g., Mackersie & Calderon-Moultrie, 2016; Mackersie & Cones, 2011; Seeman & Sims, 2015), were attributed to changes in effort. In addition, changes in the synchronization of alpha and theta oscillations during electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings (Deng et al, 2019; Miles et al, 2017; Obleser et al, 2012; Wisniewski, 2017; Wisniewski et al, 2018), changes in the topography, latency, or amplitude of event-related potentials (ERPs) (e.g., Bertoli & Bodmer, 2016; Kyong et al, 2020; Obleser & Kotz, 2011; Ullsperger et al, 1988), or recruitment of additional brain areas in neuroimaging studies (e.g., Eckert et al, 2016; Peelle, 2018; White & Langdon, 2021; Wild et al, 2012) were found to be associated with the difficulty of the task and were interpreted to reflect changes in effort.…”

“…Using a different physiological measure, Grant et al (2022) examined listening effort among English (L1)–French (L2) and French (L1)–English (L2) bilinguals, by tracking the changes in alpha oscillation . During EEG recordings, bilinguals listened to sentences presented in both of their languages (L1 or L2) in quiet and in the presence of multi-talker babble noise.…”

“…Examining listening effort using physiological measures has been studied with bilingual adults (Borghini & Hazan, 2018, 2020; Francis et al, 2018; Grant et al, 2022) and bilingual children (Brännström et al, 2021). Specifically, by using pupillometry , Borghini and Hazan (2018) examined how the presence of background noise, as a form of environmental degradation, affects the listening effort experienced by young adult native English monolinguals and Italian (L1)–English (L2) bilinguals.…”