Using fNIRS to identify the brain activation and networks associated with English versus Chinese simultaneous interpreting

摘要

It has been proposed that there are two alternative strategies for bilinguals to translate betweenlanguages, i.e. “transcoding”, which takes the “shortcut” linking translation equivalents betweenthe source language (SL) and the target language (TL), or “transphrasing”, which takes the “longroute” involving a monolingual processing of meaning in the SL, a non-verbal conceptual level,and then a monolingual processing of meaning in the TL . This study examined the neuralmechanism underlying these two translation strategies in the context of Chinese to Englishsimultaneous interpreting (SI) by using optical brain mapping techniques. In particular, brainactivation patterns associated with the two forms of bilingual processing are compared with thoserelated to “code-mixing”, which is a strategy that probably has little to do with bilingualprocessing but available to simultaneous interpreters in certain contexts. We discovered that“transcoding” only elicited significant and almost immediate brain activation in the Broca’s area,whereas “transphrasing” produced more extensive and stronger activation across the whole leftprefrontal cortex as compared to “code-mixing”. This pilot study, which provides neurologicalevidences for the “shortcut” and the “long route” that bilinguals utilize when translating betweenlanguages, will definitely pave a new avenue for better understanding of the cognitive mechanismunderlying translation, bilingual processing and speech production in general.