Tohoku University Cognitive Neuroscience Application Center

People use gestures all the time — they’re such a natural yet essential part of our communication. While the study of co-speech gestures in our native language began long ago, attention to their role in second language (L2) acquisition and comprehension started much later. Although recent behavioral studies have shown that gestures serve as visual cues and leave motor traces in the listener’s mind — helping them understand and remember spoken content — the neural mechanisms behind this integration in L2 contexts remain largely unexplored.

This time, Yan Jiaxin, student of Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, presented the results of an fMRI study on this topic. They discovered that recall of L2 speech is positively correlated with activation in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) — a known multimodal integration hub in the brain! Many audience members with interests in multimodal communication, in both L1 and L2, came to discuss the work enthusiastically after the talk.

Of course, the other symposia, poster presentations, and oral sessions were even more inspiring. Despite the heat during those days in Matsuyama, the atmosphere was filled with excitement and a genuine eagerness to exchange research insights and reflections. From syntax and morphology to acquisition phases and pragmatics, the conference covered a wide range of linguistic topics. Though it was a relatively small-scale event, it was compact and intellectually rich — allowing for more focused and dense interactions among researchers. (Jeong)

Jiaxin Yan, Victoria-Anne Flood, Motoaki Sugiura, & Hyeonjeong Jeong
How Gestures Facilitate Second Language Acquisition: A Neural Perspective
The Japanese Society for Language Sciences (JSLS), Matsuyama, Ehime University, Japan【 Oral 】
https://jslsweb.sakura.ne.jp/wp/?page_id=1678&lang=en