Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42667920›Full record

ArticleBrain and language2026

Neural tracking of surprisal in Spanish-English bilingual children during naturalistic heritage language listening.

Lauren K Salig, Chi-Lin Yu, Molly Leachman, Nivedhitha Dondati Purushotham, Valeria Ortiz-Villalobos, Zahira Flores-Gaona, Viviana Vélez Negrón, Carla Girardini, Hsin-Yuan Fang, Alisa Baron and 6 more

Abstract read
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In one paragraph

Article in Brain and language, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

16 authors.

Lauren K SaligThe College of New Jersey, Department of Psychology, 2000 Pennington Rd., Ewing, NJ 08628, USA; University of Michigan, Department of Psychology, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: salig@tcnj.edu.
Chi-Lin YuUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, USA; Oklahoma State University, Department of Psychology, 403 Psychology Building, Stillwater, OK 74078-3064, USA. Electronic address: chilinyu@unc.edu.
Molly LeachmanUniversity of Michigan, Department of Psychology, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: lmolly@umich.edu.
Nivedhitha Dondati PurushothamUniversity of Michigan, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, 2260 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: nividp@umich.edu.
Valeria Ortiz-VillalobosUniversity of Michigan, Department of Psychology, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: valeriao@umich.edu.
Zahira Flores-GaonaUniversity of Michigan, Department of Psychology, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: zahiraf@umich.edu.
Viviana Vélez NegrónUniversity of Michigan, Department of Psychology, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: vvelezn@umich.edu.
Carla GirardiniUniversity of Michigan, Department of Psychology, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: carlagir@umich.edu.
Hsin-Yuan FangUniversity of Michigan, Department of Psychology, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: hsinyuan@umich.edu.
Alisa BaronUniversity of Rhode Island, Department of Communicative Disorders, 75 Briar Lane, Kingston, RI, USA. Electronic address: barona@uri.edu.
Lisa M BedoreTemple University, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Paley Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA. Electronic address: lisa.bedore@temple.edu.
James R BoothVanderbilt University, Department of Psychology and Human Development, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203-5721, USA. Electronic address: james.booth@vanderbilt.edu.
Elizabeth D PeñaUniversity of California, School of Education, 3200 Education Bldg, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. Electronic address: edpena@uci.edu.
Teresa SatterfieldUniversity of Michigan, Department of Romance Languages & Literatures, 812 E Washington St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA. Electronic address: tsatter@umich.edu.
Jonathan R BrennanUniversity of Michigan, Department of Linguistics, 812 E Washington St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA. Electronic address: jobrenn@umich.edu.
Ioulia KovelmanUniversity of Michigan, Department of Psychology, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; The University of Texas at Dallas, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing, USA. Electronic address: Ioulia.kovelman@utdallas.edu.

Funding

TRAINING PROGRAM IN DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGYT32HD007109 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI GELMAN, SUSAN A., MONK, CHRISTOPHER STEPHEN · 1985 to 2025
$6.6M
Bilingual Children with DLD: A Neurodevelopmental PerspectiveR01HD109224 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS DALLAS · PI Ioulia Kovelman · 2023 to 2026
$2.4M
Bilingual and cross-cultural investigation of developmental dyslexiaR01HD111637 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI Ioulia Kovelman · 2023 to 2026
$2.3M
NICHD NIH HHS R01 HD109224NICHD NIH HHS R01 HD111637NICHD NIH HHS T32 HD007109
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Our understanding of the neurobiology of language development is imprecise, particularly for bilingual children in their heritage language, since much research focuses on monolingual children or societal majority languages. In this study, we use a novel computational approach to quantifying linguistic predictions with fNIRS neuroimaging to examine bilingual children's (N = 88, ages 7-12) brain activity as they listen to a naturalistic story in their heritage language of Spanish. The children demonstrated successful neural tracking of word predictability in their heritage language, suggesting they can form rich linguistic representations in Spanish. There were some trends for reading and listening comprehension abilities in English and Spanish to modulate neural tracking of predictability in a Spanish story, but no effects were reliable enough to interpret with confidence. Overall, this first use of a predictability-based computational, naturalistic listening comprehension approach with bilingual children demonstrates the feasibility of this approach and its utility for studying language development.

Indexed as

BrainComprehensionLanguage DevelopmentMultilingualismSpeech PerceptionBrain MappingChildFemaleHumansLanguageMaleSpectroscopy, Near-InfraredBilingualComputationalfNIRSHeritage languageLanguage developmentNaturalistic listeningSurprisal

Identifiers

PMID42667920
PMCPMC13592032

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.