N۴۰۰ Latency for Language Emotionality Differences of Bilinguals' First and Second Language

Background and Aim: Emotions affect human behavior and cognition including language. It has been suggested that bilingual speakers feel different emotionality for their first (L۱) and second (L۲) language. In other words, L۲ is emotionally distant and L۲ emotional words seem to induce less emotionality in bilinguals compared to their L۱ emotional words. Methods: In this respect, ۱۸ Turkish-Persian graduate students participated in the experiment. An auditory task was run in ۴ blocks with anger and neutral words of two languages as the stimuli. At the same time EEG was recorded from ۶۴ channels. Signal processing and statistical analysis were performed on the data with N۴۰۰ component, language, and emotional valence of stimuli taken into account. Results The present study examined different sense of emotionality in Turkish-Persian bilinguals' first and second language. Conclusion According to Kruskal-Wallis and post hoc statistical tests, N۴۰۰ peak showed significant difference only in one channel (Oz). However, N۴۰۰ latency was sensitive to different stimuli and significant difference was observed between two languages. The mean N۴۰۰ latency for anger stimuli was less than neutral ones. Additionally, it was less for Turkish anger words comparing to Persian anger words. N۴۰۰ is closely related to lexical access and the processing of meaning. Moreover, it can reveal facilitated processing of meaning and lexical processing of emotional stimuli. Regarding this fact and findings of the present study, it was concluded that anger words captured attention due to their negative content; therefore, they were processed fast and autonomously. Contrastingly, more time and effort was needed to process neutral words on account of lack of automatic attention. Furthermore, Turkish anger words were processed faster which revealed participants' L۱ attracted their attention faster and led to easier emotional lexical processing. Altogether, it can be stated that first language induces more emotionality, whereas second language processing is less automatic. L۱ emotional words are more deeply coded and have deeper emotional associations. Due to rapid and automatic attention capture, there is an emotional word processing advantage in L۱. And finally, bilinguals' emotional involvement is stronger for their native language than for their L۲ since they have acquired their L۱ in family and emotional contexts which have a crucial impact on emotional word] processing.

کلیدواژه ها:

Bilingualism ، emotion ، anger ، N۴۰۰ latency