Abstract
Researchers have debated the extent to which the experience of speaking more than two languages induces long-term neuroplasticity that protects multilinguals from the adverse cognitive effects of aging. In this review, I propose a novel theory that multilingualism affects cognitive persistence, the application of effort to improve performance on challenging tasks. I review recent evidence demonstrating that the cingulo-opercular network, consisting of the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), supports cognitive persistence. I then show that this same network is involved in multilingual language control and changes with multilingual language experience. While both early and late multilinguals exhibit differences in the cingulo-opercular network compared to monolinguals, I find that early multilinguals have a pattern of decreased dACC activity and increased left IFG activity that may enable more efficient cognitive control, whereas late multilinguals show larger dACC responses to conflict that may be associated with higher cognitive persistence. I further demonstrate that multilingual effects on the cingulo-opercular network are present in older adults and have been implicated in the mitigation of cognitive symptoms in age-related neurodegenerative disorders. Finally, I argue that mixed results in the literature are due, in part, to the confound between cognitive persistence and ability in most executive function tasks, and I provide guidance for separating these processes in future research.
Highlights
Numerous studies have been devoted to the question of the extent to which the experience of speaking two or more languages improves cognitive control, the ability to suppress irrelevant information in the service of goal-oriented performance
As cognitive control naturally declines with age, a lifetime of experience managing multiple languages may protect the brain from decline or allow multilinguals to achieve better levels of performance with similar levels of neural degeneration (Bialystok et al, 2009)
Based on the extant literature on the effect of multilingualism on cognitive control across the lifespan, I propose a novel theory that multilingualism enhances cognitive persistence, the ability to apply effort to overcome difficulty (Teubner-Rhodes et al, 2017), which is enacted by increased reactivity of the cingulo-opercular system to performance decrements and/or conflict
Summary
Numerous studies have been devoted to the question of the extent to which the experience of speaking two or more languages improves cognitive control, the ability to suppress irrelevant information in the service of goal-oriented performance (for review, see Bialystok, 2017). Higher cognitive persistence improves performance by increasing reactivity of the cingulo-opercular network and exertion of effort in response to task difficulty, which increases as individuals age. Cognitive persistence was associated with sensitivity to errors in the dACC/pre-SMA and left IFG as well as the link between dACC/pre-SMA activity and subsequent performance improvements (Teubner-Rhodes et al, 2017); in contrast, set-shifting ability was not associated with cingulo-opercular effects.
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