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Guillaume Thierry

Bangor University, Psychology, Faculty Member

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Dr Thierry received his PhD in 2000 in Toulouse, France, and is now Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Bangor University in the School of Psychology where he heads Bangor University’s Language Electrophysiology Team (BULET). He is also a member of the Wolfson Institute for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience and of the Centre for Research on Bilingualism. Under the umbrella of the latter, he organized the Neurobilingualism Conference in Bangor, Wales in 2009. He is associate editor of Neuroreport and Frontiers in Psychology (Language Sciences) and regularly reviews for major national and international funding agencies. Dr Thierry has received funding from the UK (BBSRC, ESRC, British Academy) and Europe (ERC). His work has appeared in leading journals such as Physiological Reviews, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, PNAS, Cerebral Cortex, The Journal of Neuroscience, Neuroimage, Human Brain Mapping, The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Frontiers in Psychology, and Cognition, as well as more specialized journals including Cortex, Brain and Language, Neuropsychologia, Brain Research, Language Learning, Bilingualism: Language

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Papers by Guillaume Thierry

Temporal sorting of neural components underlying phonological processing

Neuroreport, Aug 1, 1999

Bilinguals reading in their second language do not predict upcoming words as native readers do

Journal of Memory and Language, Nov 1, 2013

Semantic priming in the motor cortex

Neuroreport, Aug 21, 2013

ERPs Reveal the Time-Course of Aberrant Visual-Phonological Binding in Developmental Dyslexia

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Mar 1, 2016

[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] Semantic Adaptation and Competition during Word Comprehension

You might find this additional information useful... This article cites 399 articles, 153 of whic... more

Switchmate! An Electrophysiological Attempt to Adjudicate Between Competing Accounts of Adjective-Noun Code-Switching

Frontiers in Psychology, 2020

Introduction of Methods Showcase Articles in Language Learning

Language Learning, 2020

Building on initiatives to promote high quality methodologies and Open Science practices in the l... more Building on initiatives to promote high quality methodologies and Open Science practices in the language sciences, Language Learning will introduce, as of March 2020, a new manuscript type entitled Methods Showcase Articles (MSAs). The purpose of MSAs is to introduce new or emerging qualitative and quantitative methods, techniques, or instrumentation for language data collection, cleaning, sampling, coding, scoring, and analysis. MSAs are intended to describe methods and provide detailed examples of their application such that language researchers can easily adopt or adapt them in future studies. In this editorial, we outline the goals, format, and benefits of MSAs, discuss how they can advance language sciences, and discuss potential concerns.

Learning to Read Bilingually Modulates the Manifestations of Dyslexia in Adults

Scientific Studies of Reading, 2018

Inclusion of Research Materials When Submitting an Article to Language Learning

Language Learning, 2019

Building on initiatives to promote high quality methodologies and Open Science practices in the l... more Building on initiatives to promote high quality methodologies and Open Science practices in the language sciences, Language Learning will request, as of January 1, 2020, that all submissions to the journal include, whenever possible, the full materials used in the study for peer review. This includes materials used to elicit and code primary and secondary data (such as questionnaires, language tests, interview or observation schedules, and coding schemas). These materials will be shared with reviewers to better inform the peer review process and ensure rigorous evaluation of the methods used. If the manuscript is accepted, authors will then be encouraged to make their materials available on an open, sustainable repository, though there is no requirement to do so. In this Editorial, we outline the benefits of this policy for the advancement of the language sciences and discuss some potential concerns that authors may have.

Testing alternative theoretical accounts of code-switching: Insights from comparative judgments of adjective–noun order

International Journal of Bilingualism, 2017

Objectives:Spanish and English contrast in adjective–noun word order: for example, brown dress (E... more Objectives:Spanish and English contrast in adjective–noun word order: for example, brown dress (English) vs. vestido marrón (‘dress brown’, Spanish). According to the Matrix Language model ( MLF) word order in code-switched sentences must be compatible with the word order of the matrix language, but working within the minimalist program (MP), Cantone and MacSwan arrived at the descriptive generalization that the position of the noun phrase relative to the adjective is determined by the adjective’s language. Our aim is to evaluate the predictions derived from these two models regarding adjective–noun order in Spanish–English code-switched sentences.Methodology:We contrasted the predictions from both models regarding the acceptability of code-switched sentences with different adjective–noun orders that were compatible with the MP, the MLF, both, or none. Acceptability was assessed in Experiment 1 with a 5-point Likert and in Experiment 2 with a 2-Alternative Forced Choice (2AFC) task....

ERPs Reveal the Time-Course of Aberrant Visual-Phonological Binding in Developmental Dyslexia

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2016

A Search-light fMRI Study of Lexico-semantic Processing in Early Welsh-English Bilinguals

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2012

On the road to somewhere: Brain potentials reflect language effects on motion event perception

Cognition, Jan 24, 2015

Recent studies have identified neural correlates of language effects on perception in static doma... more Recent studies have identified neural correlates of language effects on perception in static domains of experience such as colour and objects. The generalization of such effects to dynamic domains like motion events remains elusive. Here, we focus on grammatical differences between languages relevant for the description of motion events and their impact on visual scene perception. Two groups of native speakers of German or English were presented with animated videos featuring a dot travelling along a trajectory towards a geometrical shape (endpoint). English is a language with grammatical aspect in which attention is drawn to trajectory and endpoint of motion events equally. German, in contrast, is a non-aspect language which highlights endpoints. We tested the comparative perceptual saliency of trajectory and endpoint of motion events by presenting motion event animations (primes) followed by a picture symbolising the event (target): In 75% of trials, the animation was followed by ...

Language and culture modulate online semantic processing

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, Jan 12, 2015

Language has been shown to influence non-linguistic cognitive operations such as colour perceptio... more Language has been shown to influence non-linguistic cognitive operations such as colour perception, object categorization, and motion event perception. Here, we show that language also modulates higher level processing, such as semantic knowledge. Using event-related brain potentials, we show that highly fluent Welsh-English bilinguals require significantly less processing effort when reading sentences in Welsh which contain factually correct information about Wales, than when reading sentences containing the same information presented in English. Crucially, culturally irrelevant information was processed similarly in both Welsh and English. Our findings show that even in highly proficient bilinguals, language interacts with factors associated with personal identity, such as culture, to modulate online semantic processing.

Anomalous transfer of syntax between languages

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, Jan 11, 2014

Each human language possesses a set of distinctive syntactic rules. Here, we show that balanced W... more Each human language possesses a set of distinctive syntactic rules. Here, we show that balanced Welsh-English bilinguals reading in English unconsciously apply a morphosyntactic rule that only exists in Welsh. The Welsh soft mutation rule determines whether the initial consonant of a noun changes based on the grammatical context (e.g., the feminine noun cath--"cat" mutates into gath in the phrase y gath--"the cat"). Using event-related brain potentials, we establish that English nouns artificially mutated according to the Welsh mutation rule (e.g., "goncert" instead of "concert") require significantly less processing effort than the same nouns implicitly violating Welsh syntax. Crucially, this effect is found whether or not the mutation affects the same initial consonant in English and Welsh, showing that Welsh syntax is applied to English regardless of phonological overlap between the two languages. Overall, these results demonstrate for the ...

Cross-linguistic experiments in infant word form recognition

Speaking two languages at once: unconscious native word form access in second language production

Cognition, 2014

Bilingualism research has established language non-selective lexical access in comprehension. How... more Bilingualism research has established language non-selective lexical access in comprehension. However, the evidence for such an effect in production remains sparse and its neural time-course has not yet been investigated. We demonstrate that German-English bilinguals performing a simple picture-naming task exclusively in English spontaneously access the phonological form of -unproduced- German words. Participants were asked to produce English adjective-noun sequences describing the colour and identity of familiar objects presented as line drawings. We associated adjective and picture names such that their onsets phonologically overlapped in English (e.g., green goat), in German through translation (e.g., blue flower - 'blaue Blume'), or in neither language. As expected, phonological priming in English modulated event-related brain potentials over the frontocentral scalp region from around 440ms after picture onset. Phonological priming in German was detectable even earlier, ...

Temporal sorting of neural components underlying phonological processing

NeuroReport, 1999

Unconscious effects of language-specific terminology on preattentive color perception

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009

It is now established that native language affects one's perception of the world. However, it... more It is now established that native language affects one's perception of the world. However, it is unknown whether this effect is merely driven by conscious, language-based evaluation of the environment or whether it reflects fundamental differences in perceptual processing between individuals speaking different languages. Using brain potentials, we demonstrate that the existence in Greek of 2 color terms—ghalazio and ble—distinguishing light and dark blue leads to greater and faster perceptual discrimination of these colors in native speakers of Greek than in native speakers of English. The visual mismatch negativity, an index of automatic and preattentive change detection, was similar for blue and green deviant stimuli during a color oddball detection task in English participants, but it was significantly larger for blue than green deviant stimuli in native speakers of Greek. These findings establish an implicit effect of language-specific terminology on human color perception.

Event-related potential characterisation of the Shakespearean functional shift in narrative sentence structure

NeuroImage, 2008

Temporal sorting of neural components underlying phonological processing

Neuroreport, Aug 1, 1999

Bilinguals reading in their second language do not predict upcoming words as native readers do

Journal of Memory and Language, Nov 1, 2013

Semantic priming in the motor cortex

Neuroreport, Aug 21, 2013

ERPs Reveal the Time-Course of Aberrant Visual-Phonological Binding in Developmental Dyslexia

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Mar 1, 2016

[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] Semantic Adaptation and Competition during Word Comprehension

You might find this additional information useful... This article cites 399 articles, 153 of whic... more

Switchmate! An Electrophysiological Attempt to Adjudicate Between Competing Accounts of Adjective-Noun Code-Switching

Frontiers in Psychology, 2020

Introduction of Methods Showcase Articles in Language Learning

Language Learning, 2020

Building on initiatives to promote high quality methodologies and Open Science practices in the l... more Building on initiatives to promote high quality methodologies and Open Science practices in the language sciences, Language Learning will introduce, as of March 2020, a new manuscript type entitled Methods Showcase Articles (MSAs). The purpose of MSAs is to introduce new or emerging qualitative and quantitative methods, techniques, or instrumentation for language data collection, cleaning, sampling, coding, scoring, and analysis. MSAs are intended to describe methods and provide detailed examples of their application such that language researchers can easily adopt or adapt them in future studies. In this editorial, we outline the goals, format, and benefits of MSAs, discuss how they can advance language sciences, and discuss potential concerns.

Learning to Read Bilingually Modulates the Manifestations of Dyslexia in Adults

Scientific Studies of Reading, 2018

Inclusion of Research Materials When Submitting an Article to Language Learning

Language Learning, 2019

Building on initiatives to promote high quality methodologies and Open Science practices in the l... more Building on initiatives to promote high quality methodologies and Open Science practices in the language sciences, Language Learning will request, as of January 1, 2020, that all submissions to the journal include, whenever possible, the full materials used in the study for peer review. This includes materials used to elicit and code primary and secondary data (such as questionnaires, language tests, interview or observation schedules, and coding schemas). These materials will be shared with reviewers to better inform the peer review process and ensure rigorous evaluation of the methods used. If the manuscript is accepted, authors will then be encouraged to make their materials available on an open, sustainable repository, though there is no requirement to do so. In this Editorial, we outline the benefits of this policy for the advancement of the language sciences and discuss some potential concerns that authors may have.

Testing alternative theoretical accounts of code-switching: Insights from comparative judgments of adjective–noun order

International Journal of Bilingualism, 2017

Objectives:Spanish and English contrast in adjective–noun word order: for example, brown dress (E... more Objectives:Spanish and English contrast in adjective–noun word order: for example, brown dress (English) vs. vestido marrón (‘dress brown’, Spanish). According to the Matrix Language model ( MLF) word order in code-switched sentences must be compatible with the word order of the matrix language, but working within the minimalist program (MP), Cantone and MacSwan arrived at the descriptive generalization that the position of the noun phrase relative to the adjective is determined by the adjective’s language. Our aim is to evaluate the predictions derived from these two models regarding adjective–noun order in Spanish–English code-switched sentences.Methodology:We contrasted the predictions from both models regarding the acceptability of code-switched sentences with different adjective–noun orders that were compatible with the MP, the MLF, both, or none. Acceptability was assessed in Experiment 1 with a 5-point Likert and in Experiment 2 with a 2-Alternative Forced Choice (2AFC) task....

ERPs Reveal the Time-Course of Aberrant Visual-Phonological Binding in Developmental Dyslexia

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2016

A Search-light fMRI Study of Lexico-semantic Processing in Early Welsh-English Bilinguals

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2012

On the road to somewhere: Brain potentials reflect language effects on motion event perception

Cognition, Jan 24, 2015

Recent studies have identified neural correlates of language effects on perception in static doma... more Recent studies have identified neural correlates of language effects on perception in static domains of experience such as colour and objects. The generalization of such effects to dynamic domains like motion events remains elusive. Here, we focus on grammatical differences between languages relevant for the description of motion events and their impact on visual scene perception. Two groups of native speakers of German or English were presented with animated videos featuring a dot travelling along a trajectory towards a geometrical shape (endpoint). English is a language with grammatical aspect in which attention is drawn to trajectory and endpoint of motion events equally. German, in contrast, is a non-aspect language which highlights endpoints. We tested the comparative perceptual saliency of trajectory and endpoint of motion events by presenting motion event animations (primes) followed by a picture symbolising the event (target): In 75% of trials, the animation was followed by ...

Language and culture modulate online semantic processing

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, Jan 12, 2015

Language has been shown to influence non-linguistic cognitive operations such as colour perceptio... more Language has been shown to influence non-linguistic cognitive operations such as colour perception, object categorization, and motion event perception. Here, we show that language also modulates higher level processing, such as semantic knowledge. Using event-related brain potentials, we show that highly fluent Welsh-English bilinguals require significantly less processing effort when reading sentences in Welsh which contain factually correct information about Wales, than when reading sentences containing the same information presented in English. Crucially, culturally irrelevant information was processed similarly in both Welsh and English. Our findings show that even in highly proficient bilinguals, language interacts with factors associated with personal identity, such as culture, to modulate online semantic processing.

Anomalous transfer of syntax between languages

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, Jan 11, 2014

Each human language possesses a set of distinctive syntactic rules. Here, we show that balanced W... more Each human language possesses a set of distinctive syntactic rules. Here, we show that balanced Welsh-English bilinguals reading in English unconsciously apply a morphosyntactic rule that only exists in Welsh. The Welsh soft mutation rule determines whether the initial consonant of a noun changes based on the grammatical context (e.g., the feminine noun cath--"cat" mutates into gath in the phrase y gath--"the cat"). Using event-related brain potentials, we establish that English nouns artificially mutated according to the Welsh mutation rule (e.g., "goncert" instead of "concert") require significantly less processing effort than the same nouns implicitly violating Welsh syntax. Crucially, this effect is found whether or not the mutation affects the same initial consonant in English and Welsh, showing that Welsh syntax is applied to English regardless of phonological overlap between the two languages. Overall, these results demonstrate for the ...

Cross-linguistic experiments in infant word form recognition

Speaking two languages at once: unconscious native word form access in second language production

Cognition, 2014

Bilingualism research has established language non-selective lexical access in comprehension. How... more Bilingualism research has established language non-selective lexical access in comprehension. However, the evidence for such an effect in production remains sparse and its neural time-course has not yet been investigated. We demonstrate that German-English bilinguals performing a simple picture-naming task exclusively in English spontaneously access the phonological form of -unproduced- German words. Participants were asked to produce English adjective-noun sequences describing the colour and identity of familiar objects presented as line drawings. We associated adjective and picture names such that their onsets phonologically overlapped in English (e.g., green goat), in German through translation (e.g., blue flower - 'blaue Blume'), or in neither language. As expected, phonological priming in English modulated event-related brain potentials over the frontocentral scalp region from around 440ms after picture onset. Phonological priming in German was detectable even earlier, ...

Temporal sorting of neural components underlying phonological processing

NeuroReport, 1999

Unconscious effects of language-specific terminology on preattentive color perception

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009

It is now established that native language affects one's perception of the world. However, it... more It is now established that native language affects one's perception of the world. However, it is unknown whether this effect is merely driven by conscious, language-based evaluation of the environment or whether it reflects fundamental differences in perceptual processing between individuals speaking different languages. Using brain potentials, we demonstrate that the existence in Greek of 2 color terms—ghalazio and ble—distinguishing light and dark blue leads to greater and faster perceptual discrimination of these colors in native speakers of Greek than in native speakers of English. The visual mismatch negativity, an index of automatic and preattentive change detection, was similar for blue and green deviant stimuli during a color oddball detection task in English participants, but it was significantly larger for blue than green deviant stimuli in native speakers of Greek. These findings establish an implicit effect of language-specific terminology on human color perception.

Event-related potential characterisation of the Shakespearean functional shift in narrative sentence structure

NeuroImage, 2008