Abstract
The present study was designed to examine the impact of bilingualism on the neuronal activity in different executive control processes namely conflict monitoring, control implementation (i.e., interference suppression and conflict resolution) and overcoming of inhibition. Twenty-two highly proficient but non-balanced successive French–German bilingual adults and 22 monolingual adults performed a combined Stroop/Negative priming task while event-related potential (ERP) were recorded online. The data revealed that the ERP effects were reduced in bilinguals in comparison to monolinguals but only in the Stroop task and limited to the N400 and the sustained fronto-central negative-going potential time windows. This result suggests that bilingualism may impact the process of control implementation rather than the process of conflict monitoring (N200). Critically, our study revealed a differential time course of the involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in conflict processing. While the ACC showed major activation in the early time windows (N200 and N400) but not in the latest time window (late sustained negative-going potential), the PFC became unilaterally active in the left hemisphere in the N400 and the late sustained negative-going potential time windows. Taken together, the present electroencephalography data lend support to a cascading neurophysiological model of executive control processes, in which ACC and PFC may play a determining role.
Highlights
The bilingual brain can distinguish and control which language is in use
For response times (RTs), the analysis of variances (ANOVAs) showed a main effect of Condition [F(3,126) = 38.54, MSE = 1099.94, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.479], reflecting that RTs were longer in the incongruent (669 ± 105 ms) compared to the congruent condition [613 ± 94 ms; Stroop effect; F(1,42) = 68.6, MSE = 2013.8, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.620] as well as compared to the neutral condition [628 ± 93 ms; F(1,42) = 61.97, MSE = 1660.6, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.596]
While the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) showed major activation in early time windows (N200 and N400) but not in the later one, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) became active in the left hemisphere in the N400 time window and in the late sustained negative-going potential time windows
Summary
Individuals who communicate in more than one language are able to produce words in the selected language and to inhibit the production of words in the non-selected language This cognitive ability to control multiple languages is assumed to rely on the Abbreviations: ACC, anterior cingulate cortex; LIFG, left inferior frontal gyrus; LMC, left motor cortex; LMTC, left mediotemporal cortex; LOC, left occipital cortex; LPFC, left prefrontal cortex; RIFG, right inferior frontal gyrus; RMC, right motor cortex; ROC, right occipital cortex; RPFC, right prefrontal cortex. Cognitive control, known as executive functions, can be defined as a set of processes involved in managing processes and resources in order to achieve a goal. It is an umbrella term for the neurologically based skills involving mental control and self-regulation. In the study presented in this paper, we examined cognitive inhibition and overcoming inhibition mechanisms
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