※ 清華語言所104學年度第一學期專題演講五（新第005次）※
演講者：Ping Li (Pennsylvania State University)
演講題目：Neuroplasticity and Learning: Brain Changes from Second Language Experiences
時間：2015 年 11 月 13 日（星期五）中午 12 時 30 分
地點：清大人社院 C310 室
講題摘要：
How does the learning of a new language change the brain, when the brain is already committed to one’s native tongue? While the mainstream cognitive neuroscience of language has focused on the processing of only one language, in recent years there has been a surge of interest in the neuroplasticity of the bilingual brain. In this talk, I ask how experience with learning a second language, on top of one’s first language, shapes functional and neuroanatomical changes. I address this question from the perspective of dynamic brain networks in light of evidence from longitudinal and short-term training studies of learners of Chinese and Spanish as a second language. We attempt to identify (a) how dynamic brain networks can adapt as a function of linguistic experience in a second language, (b) how such changes may capture learning success, effectiveness, and knowledge in general, and (c) whether such neurocognitive changes may be predicted based on individual learners’ neurocognitive profiles. Our findings point to the significance of the study of bilingual brain, and the implications that it has for understanding neuroplasticity and learning and the brain-behavior-cognition relationships more generally.
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Biographical information:
Ping Li is Professor of Psychology, Linguistics, and Information Sciences and Technology at the Pennsylvania State University, where he is also Associate Director of the Institute for CyberScience, Co-Director of the Center for Brain, Behavior, and Cognition, and Co-Director of the Advanced Joint Center for the Study of Learning Sciences. His research interests are in the cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience of language acquisition and bilingualism, and his publications include co-authored books such as Acquisition of Lexical and Grammatical Aspect; Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics; the Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism; and Having Success with NSF: A Practical Guide. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neurolinguistics and Associate Editor of Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences. He has previously served as Editor of Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, President of the Society for Computers in Psychology, and Director for the Cognitive Neuroscience Program and the Program in Perception, Action, and Cognition at the National Science Foundation. For more information about Li’s research please consult http://blclab.org/.