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Metaphorical language processing and amygdala activation in non-native and native speakers

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Francesca Citron discusses the neural correlates of processing conventional figurative language in non-native speakers in a comparison with native speakers.

Image courtesy of interviewee. July 12, 2024

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The study aims to explore how metaphors are processed by second language speakers compared to native speakers, specifically looking at the neural networks involved and whether second language speakers experience the same rhetorical advantages. Conventional metaphors help convey abstract concepts in more concrete terms, facilitating understanding.

The research differentiates between various degrees of metaphorical and literal language, investigating how second language speakers process these expressions during comprehension tasks. The study finds that second language speakers activate the language network more strongly due to the additional demands of processing a second language, and they also engage the switching network to manage interference from their native language.

Key findings include that second language speakers do not differentiate as well between metaphorical and literal expressions as native speakers, showing reduced emotional engagement with metaphors. They utilized similar neural pathways for both types of expressions but with lesser differentiation. The study suggests investigating novel metaphors and the time course of effective engagement in future research, aiming to understand how quickly emotional engagement occurs in processing these expressions.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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So the aims of the study, are to look at,

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how metaphors are processed by second language speakers.

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Do they use the same, neural network

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that native speakers used?

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And, do,

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second language speakers enjoy the same rhetorical

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advantage, that is found in native speakers?

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So, conventional metaphors are very common expressions.

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For example, her Spanish is rusty.

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Um, and they help us

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because they help us, conceptualize something abstract,

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difficult to understand in more concrete terms.

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So if I say she's a bright student,

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or she's a sweet girl,

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I'm conceptualizing something abstract, for example,

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intelligence with something concrete that we can, see,

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you know, bright light is intelligence,

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or she's a sweet girl.

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I'm conceptualizing kindness, which is an abstract concept

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with something we can experience with our taste,

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which is sweet taste in our brain.

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We, we represent language, with sounds, with,

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you know, spoken word and things like that.

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But then these are all very abstract symbols.

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So if we can have also some sensory monitoring information

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that is activated,

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then this helps us have more concrete representations.

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In fact, concrete concepts that we can touch

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and see are easier

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to understand the more abstract concepts such as thought.

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So metaphoric is a term that I use in my,

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in this specific study, and it's a, a more subtle measure.

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So instead of looking at metaphors versus literal,

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sentences, we look at different degrees, to which,

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different degrees in which a sentence

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is considered metaphorical.

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So if I say the sudden change was a shock for her,

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this is a literal sentence.

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If I say she left everything behind

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and went away, it can be interpreted differently.

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But, she, we often mean, you know, we,

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we mean she left her her life behind and went away.

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So that's, a kind of metaphor,

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but Nikki speakers don't even realize that everything

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behind is a metaphor.

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Okay? So it's really, really, yeah.

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And then I can say her Spanish is rusty,

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where an it speaker will say,

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that's definitely a metaphor,

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but it's very, very, very common.

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So, you know what I mean.

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And then we have other common metaphors that are,

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less often used.

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For example, the school reform was on shaky ground,

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so you still understand what I mean,

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but it's less commonly used.

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And so we have different degrees from very, very literal

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to dead metaphors, to conventional metaphors

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that are often used or less often used.

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And this is a, a more subtle measure that we can,

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manipulate to look at what happens in the brain.

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We know from Aristotle, that,

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figurative language such as metaphors,

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carries a rhetorical advantage.

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Okay? So we know this

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and there's, pioneering behavioral research that shows

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that yes, when we talk about

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A personal, autobiographical events, for example,

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personal events, we use more metaphors if we talk about,

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what ha how we felt during that event.

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So, you know, imagine a, a traumatic memory

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of childhood or something like that.

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We use more metaphors when we, talk about how we felt

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during that event compared to when we described

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what happened in the event.

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So, and this is just one example.

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So a lot of literature show that there is,

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rhetorical advantage.

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We use more metaphors, we use more me,

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more idioms when we want to convey something,

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emotionally, salient.

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Okay? But, the, research on,

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in neuroscientific research on

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how we process metaphors has not taken into account this,

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rhetoric rhetorical advantage.

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They have looked at, you know, which brain networks,

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language network, attention network,

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executive control network are activated when we process

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figurative language compared to, ra.

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So metaphor compared to ra,

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but they have not,

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been interested in the effective engagement

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or rhetorical advantage.

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And, and then in addition to that, so I wanted

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to look at the, effective, engagement

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or rhetorical advantage, at the neural level

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to see whether, you know, this happens implicitly,

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not just when we ask people to talk about their own things,

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but also when they simply,

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understand language for comprehension.

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They read, they read, stories.

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And then in particular, I'm interested in

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second language speakers.

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We know that second language speakers,

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even if highly proficient in English, in, in the native,

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in the second language, they struggle with,

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figurative expressions.

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Uh, so we know this

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and we also know that they tend

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to be more emotionally distant from the second language.

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And so I wanted to investigate, you know,

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do they process, metaphors,

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conventional metaphors that they know?

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Do they process them similarly to native speakers?

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And do they get more effectively engaged or not?

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We asked participants to simply read for comprehension.

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There was no task. We were not interested

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in their reading times.

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We know that people,

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process metaphorical conventional metaphors

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and literacy senses at the, at the same speed

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because they're easy to process.

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We were interested in the brain network.

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So even documentary mepa are very easy to understand,

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there is evidence for more active activation in the,

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in the brain, in the language network

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and the executive control network.

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So we simply asked them to read for comprehension.

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We didn't tell them that it was about

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metaphors and re synthesis.

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We wanted, them to implicitly process things,

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differently depending on meta,

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whether they are metaphorically, expressed or not.

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Um, and then every now

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and then we had a comprehension question just to make sure

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that, you know, they were still, you know,

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engaged in the task.

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And, and we,

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so we presented the conventional metaphor,

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a literal sentence without telling them it's about

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Metaphors. And

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then on purpose, we, we made our,

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sentences very low in emotive content

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because if there is an effective advantage, we want it

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to be, due to the use

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of the metaphorical formulation compared to the literal

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and not to the fact that the sentences

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are a monkey themselves.

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First of all, we found that, I mean in line, in line

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with the literature, what we knew

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before, second language speakers, activate,

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the extended language network more

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strongly than native speakers.

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So they, they, they use the same language language network

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as native speakers, but they activated it more strongly

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and more widely because they, for them processing,

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the second language is more demanding.

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Okay? Um,

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and so, yeah, so we found this in addition to this,

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secondary speakers also activate the switching network.

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The switching network is the network that, allows them

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to switch between L one and L two.

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We know that, L two speakers,

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experience interference from their native

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language at all times.

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Um, and so even if they're just, simply asked

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to do everything in L two with no interference, no,

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no switching, so we don't ask them to switch

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between languages, they just focus on German.

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We do find, interference in the brain

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because we do find stronger activation

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of the switching network for L two speakers than,

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native speakers.

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This is in line with the literature and we're, we're happy.

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Uh, but the most important

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and interesting aspect for us was meta felicity.

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So if we go from very literal to, con dead metaphors,

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conventional metaphors more often used, less often used,

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used what happens in the brain for native speakers.

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We confirmed our previous results, so we were one

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of the few people to find that, conventional,

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metaphors engage,

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readers at the emotional neural level

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more strongly than natives.

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So is is one of our original findings.

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We confirm this finding, in native speakers

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with sentences that are relatively boring

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or relatively unemotional.

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So we can confirm that this, you know, the,

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conveying, the same message in a figurative way compared

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to, re brain language does engage native speakers,

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at the emotional level more strongly.

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So that's great. However, in the case of,

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L two speakers, we didn't find two things.

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So first of all, they don't seem to differentiate much

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between the different levels of multiplicity.

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So the native speakers were all familiar

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with these metaphors.

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If they were not familiar with them, we excluded those,

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few metaphors from the analysis.

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So they, they knew the meaning, the correct meaning

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of the metaphors, and yet they treated literal

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and metaphorical senses very similarly.

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So we don't, we find very little

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stronger activation, in the brain.

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Um, in response to increased metaphor, we found,

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the coded nucleus, which,

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Um, you know, allows, us to switch in

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between different representations.

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It has been found in native speakers as well.

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So it restricts the possible meanings.

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You know, there's different possible meanings

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and it restricts them, into one.

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Um, and that's the only finding.

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Uh, there are only cluster

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of activation we found in native speakers.

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So there's, sorry, in second language speakers.

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So there's not much differentiation

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between different levels of meta university.

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They seem to, you know, engage more,

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language network, engage more executive control functions,

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no matter whether it's al sentences

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or metaphorical sentences.

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And then in terms of, effective engagement,

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they don't show the same degree of effective engagement

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as native speakers.

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Um, I mean, I could go into more details.

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I mean, at the neural level, the,

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at the whole brain level, they don't show it.

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We had a priority hypothesis.

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So we did apply,

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a small volume correction on the amygdala.

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And in that case, we found, a couple of clusters of,

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of boxes of activation.

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But it's very weak results.

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So we cannot say that they get,

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more emotionally engaged.

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So they work harder, they differentiate less

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between metaphorical and literal,

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and they don't ensure these effective,

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stronger effective engagement for metaphorical,

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even though our,

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second language speakers were highly proficient in German,

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maybe there was still some kind of variability.

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So, if we, if in future, if we were testing,

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a more homogeneous group

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and even more homogeneous group,

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then we may find more similarities between, natives

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and second language speakers.

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The other thing that we didn't consider is the

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novelty of metaphors.

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So we can use novel metaphors, you know,

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Juliette is the Sun, which is not a conventional metaphor.

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And see what happens with novel metaphors.

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Maybe in that case, both native

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and second language speakers get,

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more emotionally engaged.

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But my main interest for future research is

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to look at the time course of, effective engagement.

10:55.345 --> 10:57.565
So with the, FMRI, with neuroimaging,

10:57.585 --> 11:00.485
we can look at the locations in the brain and the networks,

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but we have, little information on time

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because the time,

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the time resolution is about two seconds.

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So I would like to see, you know, millisecond

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by millisecond, what happens in the brain?

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Do people get engaged, you know,

11:15.625 --> 11:17.245
at an early processing level

11:17.305 --> 11:19.365
before they are aware of the full meaning of the,

11:19.365 --> 11:21.045
of the word or sentence?

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Do they get emotional engaged at that very, implicit

11:24.785 --> 11:28.085
and automatic level, or do they get more emotional engage

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later on after they've retrieved the meaning they've

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integrated the meaning, within the wider context.

11:35.425 --> 11:38.805
Um, and so I would like to really, you know, map out,

11:39.265 --> 11:41.165
millisecond by millisecond

11:41.235 --> 11:43.485
what happens in the brain in terms of,

11:43.485 --> 11:44.525
effective engagement.

00:00 - So the aims of the study, are to look at, how metaphors are processed by second language speakers. Do they use the same, neural network that native speakers used? And, do, second language speakers enjoy the same rhetorical

00:15 - advantage, that is found in native speakers? So, conventional metaphors are very common expressions. For example, her Spanish is rusty. and they help us because they help us, conceptualize something abstract, difficult to understand in more concrete terms. So if I say she's a bright student, or she's a sweet girl, I'm conceptualizing something abstract, for example, intelligence with something concrete that we can, see,

00:44 - you know, bright light is intelligence, or she's a sweet girl. I'm conceptualizing kindness, which is an abstract concept with something we can experience with our taste, which is sweet taste in our brain. We, we represent language, with sounds, with, you know, spoken word and things like that. But then these are all very abstract symbols. So if we can have also some sensory monitoring information that is activated,

01:10 - then this helps us have more concrete representations. In fact, concrete concepts that we can touch and see are easier to understand the more abstract concepts such as thought. So metaphoric is a term that I use in my, in this specific study, and it's a, a more subtle measure. So instead of looking at metaphors versus literal, sentences, we look at different degrees, to which, different degrees in which a sentence is considered metaphorical.

01:40 - So if I say the sudden change was a shock for her, this is a literal sentence. If I say she left everything behind and went away, it can be interpreted differently. But, she, we often mean, you know, we, we mean she left her her life behind and went away. So that's, a kind of metaphor, but Nikki speakers don't even realize that everything behind is a metaphor. Okay? So it's really, really, yeah.

02:08 - And then I can say her Spanish is rusty, where an it speaker will say, that's definitely a metaphor, but it's very, very, very common. So, you know what I mean. And then we have other common metaphors that are, less often used. For example, the school reform was on shaky ground, so you still understand what I mean, but it's less commonly used.

02:29 - And so we have different degrees from very, very literal to dead metaphors, to conventional metaphors that are often used or less often used. And this is a, a more subtle measure that we can, manipulate to look at what happens in the brain. We know from Aristotle, that, figurative language such as metaphors, carries a rhetorical advantage. Okay? So we know this and there's, pioneering behavioral research that shows

02:56 - that yes, when we talk about A personal, autobiographical events, for example, personal events, we use more metaphors if we talk about, what ha how we felt during that event. So, you know, imagine a, a traumatic memory of childhood or something like that. We use more metaphors when we, talk about how we felt during that event compared to when we described what happened in the event. So, and this is just one example.

03:23 - So a lot of literature show that there is, rhetorical advantage. We use more metaphors, we use more me, more idioms when we want to convey something, emotionally, salient. Okay? But, the, research on, in neuroscientific research on how we process metaphors has not taken into account this, rhetoric rhetorical advantage. They have looked at, you know, which brain networks,

03:50 - language network, attention network, executive control network are activated when we process figurative language compared to, ra. So metaphor compared to ra, but they have not, been interested in the effective engagement or rhetorical advantage. And, and then in addition to that, so I wanted to look at the, effective, engagement or rhetorical advantage, at the neural level

04:15 - to see whether, you know, this happens implicitly, not just when we ask people to talk about their own things, but also when they simply, understand language for comprehension. They read, they read, stories. And then in particular, I'm interested in second language speakers. We know that second language speakers, even if highly proficient in English, in, in the native, in the second language, they struggle with,

04:38 - figurative expressions. so we know this and we also know that they tend to be more emotionally distant from the second language. And so I wanted to investigate, you know, do they process, metaphors, conventional metaphors that they know? Do they process them similarly to native speakers? And do they get more effectively engaged or not? We asked participants to simply read for comprehension.

05:00 - There was no task. We were not interested in their reading times. We know that people, process metaphorical conventional metaphors and literacy senses at the, at the same speed because they're easy to process. We were interested in the brain network. So even documentary mepa are very easy to understand, there is evidence for more active activation in the, in the brain, in the language network

05:23 - and the executive control network. So we simply asked them to read for comprehension. We didn't tell them that it was about metaphors and re synthesis. We wanted, them to implicitly process things, differently depending on meta, whether they are metaphorically, expressed or not. and then every now and then we had a comprehension question just to make sure that, you know, they were still, you know,

05:47 - engaged in the task. And, and we, so we presented the conventional metaphor, a literal sentence without telling them it's about Metaphors. And then on purpose, we, we made our, sentences very low in emotive content because if there is an effective advantage, we want it to be, due to the use of the metaphorical formulation compared to the literal

06:13 - and not to the fact that the sentences are a monkey themselves. First of all, we found that, I mean in line, in line with the literature, what we knew before, second language speakers, activate, the extended language network more strongly than native speakers. So they, they, they use the same language language network as native speakers, but they activated it more strongly and more widely because they, for them processing,

06:39 - the second language is more demanding. Okay? and so, yeah, so we found this in addition to this, secondary speakers also activate the switching network. The switching network is the network that, allows them to switch between L one and L two. We know that, L two speakers, experience interference from their native language at all times. and so even if they're just, simply asked

07:04 - to do everything in L two with no interference, no, no switching, so we don't ask them to switch between languages, they just focus on German. We do find, interference in the brain because we do find stronger activation of the switching network for L two speakers than, native speakers. This is in line with the literature and we're, we're happy. but the most important and interesting aspect for us was meta felicity.

07:29 - So if we go from very literal to, con dead metaphors, conventional metaphors more often used, less often used, used what happens in the brain for native speakers. We confirmed our previous results, so we were one of the few people to find that, conventional, metaphors engage, readers at the emotional neural level more strongly than natives. So is is one of our original findings. We confirm this finding, in native speakers

07:58 - with sentences that are relatively boring or relatively unemotional. So we can confirm that this, you know, the, conveying, the same message in a figurative way compared to, re brain language does engage native speakers, at the emotional level more strongly. So that's great. However, in the case of, L two speakers, we didn't find two things. So first of all, they don't seem to differentiate much between the different levels of multiplicity.

08:29 - So the native speakers were all familiar with these metaphors. If they were not familiar with them, we excluded those, few metaphors from the analysis. So they, they knew the meaning, the correct meaning of the metaphors, and yet they treated literal and metaphorical senses very similarly. So we don't, we find very little stronger activation, in the brain. in response to increased metaphor, we found,

08:53 - the coded nucleus, which, you know, allows, us to switch in between different representations. It has been found in native speakers as well. So it restricts the possible meanings. You know, there's different possible meanings and it restricts them, into one. and that's the only finding. there are only cluster of activation we found in native speakers.

09:13 - So there's, sorry, in second language speakers. So there's not much differentiation between different levels of meta university. They seem to, you know, engage more, language network, engage more executive control functions, no matter whether it's al sentences or metaphorical sentences. And then in terms of, effective engagement, they don't show the same degree of effective engagement as native speakers.

09:38 - I mean, I could go into more details. I mean, at the neural level, the, at the whole brain level, they don't show it. We had a priority hypothesis. So we did apply, a small volume correction on the amygdala. And in that case, we found, a couple of clusters of, of boxes of activation. But it's very weak results. So we cannot say that they get,

10:00 - more emotionally engaged. So they work harder, they differentiate less between metaphorical and literal, and they don't ensure these effective, stronger effective engagement for metaphorical, even though our, second language speakers were highly proficient in German, maybe there was still some kind of variability. So, if we, if in future, if we were testing, a more homogeneous group

10:24 - and even more homogeneous group, then we may find more similarities between, natives and second language speakers. The other thing that we didn't consider is the novelty of metaphors. So we can use novel metaphors, you know, Juliette is the Sun, which is not a conventional metaphor. And see what happens with novel metaphors. Maybe in that case, both native and second language speakers get,

10:46 - more emotionally engaged. But my main interest for future research is to look at the time course of, effective engagement. So with the, FMRI, with neuroimaging, we can look at the locations in the brain and the networks, but we have, little information on time because the time, the time resolution is about two seconds. So I would like to see, you know, millisecond by millisecond, what happens in the brain?

11:13 - Do people get engaged, you know, at an early processing level before they are aware of the full meaning of the, of the word or sentence? Do they get emotional engaged at that very, implicit and automatic level, or do they get more emotional engage later on after they've retrieved the meaning they've integrated the meaning, within the wider context. and so I would like to really, you know, map out, millisecond by millisecond

11:41 - what happens in the brain in terms of, effective engagement.

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