Text comprehension relies on high-level cognitive processes as it is the ability to revise an erroneous inference. Recent models of language processing hold that native language processing is proactive in nature (highly predictive), whereas processing seems to be weaker in the second language. However, if a prediction fails because unexpected information is encountered, reactive processing is needed to revise previous information. Twenty-four highly proficient late bilinguals were presented with narratives in L1-English and L2-Spanish. Each text demanded the revision of an initial predictive inference. Reading times and N400 amplitude suggested inferential revision is less efficient in the L2 compared to the L1. Importantly, these effects were modulated by individual differences in cognitive control and L2 proficiency. More efficient L1 comprehension was related to a balance between proactive and reactive control and lower L2 proficiency, whereas more native-like L2 comprehension was associated with a strong proactive control and higher L2 proficiency.

This study aimed to assess body image impairments of individuals with Marfan syndrome and to determine to what extent psychological, physical, and sociodemographic factors influence body image. We assessed the physical fitness and psychosocial health of 42 patients with Marfan syndrome at the beginning of an inpatient rehabilitation program. All participants filled out a body image questionnaire consisting of two scales: (1) Negative Body Evaluation and (2) Vital Body Dynamics. We compared body image data of the study sample with the German representative norming sample and carried out two separate regression analyses in order to determine which variables were associated with the two dimensions of patients’ body image. Body image of individuals with Marfan syndrome appeared to be significantly impaired, with high percentile ranks for Negative Body Evaluation (women = 88, men = 91) and low percentile ranks for Vital Body Dynamics (women = 11, men = 4). Vital Body Dynamics was predicted by age (p = 0.016) and by depression (p < 0.001), and Negative Body Evaluation was predicted by anxiety (p = 0.001). Body image in individuals with Marfan syndrome is not primarily determined by objective measures of fitness or by objective cardiac impairment but by psychological variables like depression and anxiety and by age. This finding can inform treatment and rehabilitation concepts. Accepting Marfan syndrome, including the acceptance of being visually different, may not only demand medical treatment and physical rehabilitation but also psychological treatment for depression and anxiety.