Catherine Ogilvy
Sewon Oh
Psychology, Spanish College of Liberal Arts May 2018 Mentor: Anne Hoffman-Gonzalez Mentor's Department: Spanish
Psychology College of Liberal Arts May 2018 Mentor: Karina Quevedo Mentor's Department: Psychiatry
Prolonged Maintenance of the Spanish Language in Immersion Students
Neurofeedback During Self-Face Processing in Depressed Versus Healthy Adolescents
Language acquisition is a widely researched topic within the field of linguistics, and there has been an increasing amount of literature on Spanish language acquisition due to its prevalence within the United States. Language abilities have been traditionally distinguished into two categories: early learners (L1) or those who acquire the language between birth and puberty, and late learners (L2) or those who acquire the language after puberty occurs (Wexler & Calicoes, 1980). However, more recent studies have illustrated that these categorizations are not as discrete as previously thought. Typically, these studies fixate on the L1 category and differentiate those fluent in a language versus heritage learners who learn the language through a cultural connection (Polinsky & Kagan, 2007). The intent of my research is to investigate the maintenance of the Spanish language in immersion students and distinguish whether they should be viewed as a type of L1 learner, a type of L2 learner, or have their own intermittent category. While enrollment rates in immersion programs are generally low in the U.S., as of 2015 there has been an increase in the number of students in these programs, following suit of typical European language programs (Devlin, 2015). The most common type of immersion program within the U.S. for English speaking students is Spanish immersion, and out of these programs dual-language immersion has shown to be most effective. This type of program is defined by having course material taught in both languages, expanding terms and concepts beyond a typical language course, and dual-language students significantly outperform non-dual-language L2 learners in Spanish language abilities (Montague, 2010). While dual-language programs are most common in elementary education, possibly categorizing the students as L1 learners, they can also extend to four-year high school programs, categorizing the students as L2 learners. The heightened exposure to the language dual-language students receive is a probable reason as to why they are successful in acquiring the language. However, immersion programs do not extend throughout life, so there is a possibility of losing these acquired abilities. At the same time, it is possible that certain skills will remain intact throughout life, and dual-language students will continue to outperform traditional L2 students. The goal of my study is to determine how much, if any, of language skills are maintained after dual-language programs and distinguish the appropriate category for dual-language students.
The aim of current study was to determine differences in brain function during a neurofeedback task between adolescents (ages 13-17) with and without significant depressive symptoms. We were interested in how neural activity in areas supporting emotion regulation would differ between adolescents with and without depression. Adolescents were evaluated for psychiatric symptoms during a first session and classified as either depressed (N=34) or healthy controls (N=19). Adolescents underwent a fMRI session during which they received neurofeedback (NF) from the amygdala and the hippocampus while watching their own smiling face and recalling happy memories to change the brain activity in the scanner. During control condition, they saw an unfamiliar teen face, counted backward (CB), and received no NF. Using SPM12, we compared diagnostic groups during NF and CB with IQ as a covariate. The results show a main effect of condition, with all participants evidencing, higher cortical activity for NF versus CB. There was a group by condition interaction whereby the depressed group had more activity during the NF versus CB compared to controls in the inferior parietal lobe, cuneus, and fusiform. Extractions for areas of significant activity were correlated with changes in rumination and depression before and after NF. Results suggest that NF during self-face processing and recall of positive memories elicit more activity in midline cortical structures that enable emotion regulation, proprioception, and motor function. However, depressed youth showed more activity during NF versus CB, compared to healthy controls, in areas supporting self-processing, perception of facial emotions, and language. Undergraduate Research Symposium | 107