Tohoku University Cognitive Neuroscience Application Center

It is well-established that speech and gesture form a unified system in one’s native language, with gestures helping listeners understand the speaker's intentions and meaning. However, how does this dynamic change for second-language speakers when gestures accompany speech? How does it differ from the native-language context? These questions guided this research, titled The Role of Gesture in Second Language Acquisition: an fMRI Study. 
Ms. Jiaxin Yan, the student of Graduate School of International Cultural Studies attended the Society for the Neurobiology of Language 2024 conference from October 24 to October 26, and presented her poster. During her presentation, many researchers stopped by to discuss this work. 

One of the highlights was meeting Professor Karen Emmorey, a renowned scholar in sign language research. She visited the poster, and they exchanged a wealth of ideas. Her insights helped Ms. Jiaxin further clarify the distinctions and connections between gesture and sign language. They also continue their conversation over lunch. (Jeong)
Society for the Neurobiology of Language (neurolang.org)


Jiaxin Yan, Victoria-Anne Flood, Motoaki Sugiura, Hyeonjeong Jeong
The Role of Gesture in Second Language Acquisition: an fMRI study
Society for the Neurobiology of Language, 16th Annual Meeting, Brisbane, Australia【 Poster 】