Bilingual language control: An event-related brain potential study

This study addressed how bilingual speakers switch between their first and second language when speaking. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and naming latencies were measured while unbalanced German (L1)-Dutch (L2) speakers performed a picture-naming task. Participants named pictures either in their L1 or in their L2 (blocked language conditions), or participants switched between their first and second language unpredictably (mixed language condition). Furthermore, form similarity between translation equivalents (cognate status) was manipulated. A cognate facilitation effect was found for L1 and L2 indicating phonological activation of the non-response language in blocked and mixed language conditions. The ERP data also revealed small but reliable effects of cognate status. Language switching resulted in equal switching costs for both languages and was associated with a modulation in the ERP waveforms (time windows 275-375 ms and 375-475 ms). Mixed language context affected especially the L1, both in ERPs and in latencies, which became slower in L1 than L2. It is suggested that sustained and transient components of language control should be distinguished. Results are discussed in relation to current theories of bilingual language processing

Are simultaneous interpreters expert bilinguals, unique bilinguals, or both?

Simultaneous interpretation is a cognitively demanding process that requires a high level of language management. Previous studies on bilinguals have suggested that extensive practice managing two languages leads to enhancements in cognitive control. Thus, interpreters may be expected to show benefits beyond those seen in bilinguals, either as an extension of previously-seen benefits or in areas specific to interpretation. The present study examined professional interpreters (N = 23) and matched multilinguals (N = 21) on memory tests, the color-word Stroop task, the Attention Network Test, and a non-linguistic task-switching paradigm. The interpreters did not show advantages in conflict resolution or switching cost where bilingual benefits have been noted. However, an interpretation-specific advantage emerged on the mixing cost in the task-switching paradigm. Additionally, the interpreters had larger verbal and spatial memory spans. Interpreters do not continue to garner benefits from bilingualism, but they do appear to possess benefits specific to their experience with simultaneous interpretation

Cognitive Control in Russian–German Bilinguals

Bilingual speakers are faced with the problem to keep their languages apart, but do so with interindividually varying success. Cognitive control abilities might be an important factor to explain such interindividual differences. Here we compare two late, balanced and highly proficient bilingual groups (mean age 24 years, L1 Russian, L2 German) which were established according to their language control abilities on a bilingual picture-naming task. One group had difficulties to remain in the instructed target language and switched unintentionally to the non-target language (“switchers”), whereas the other group rarely switched unintentionally (“non-switchers”). This group-specific behavior could not be explained by language background, socio-cultural, or demographic variables. Rather, the non-switchers also demonstrated a faster and better performance on four cognitive control tests (Tower of Hanoi, Ruff Figural Fluency Test, Divided Attention, Go/Nogo). Here, we focus on two additional executive function tasks, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the Flanker task requiring conflict monitoring and conflict resolution. Non-switchers outperformed switchers with regard to speed and accuracy, and were better at finding and applying the correct rules in the WCST. Similarly, in the Flanker task non-switchers performed faster and better on conflict trials and had a higher correction rate following an error. Event-related potential recordings furthermore revealed a smaller error-related negativity in the non-switchers, taken as evidence for a more efficient self-monitoring system. We conclude that bilingual language performance, in particular switching behavior, is related to performance on cognitive control tasks. Better cognitive control, including conflict monitoring, results in decreased unintentional switching

What absent switch costs and mixing costs during bilingual language comprehension can tell us about language control.

Epub 2019 Mar 28.In the current study, we set out to investigate language control, which is the process that minimizes cross-language interference, during bilingual language comprehension. According to current theories of bilingual language comprehension, language-switch costs, which are a marker for reactive language control, should be observed. However, a closer look at the literature shows that this is not always the case. Furthermore, little to no evidence for language-mixing costs, which are a marker for proactive language control, has been observed in the bilingual language comprehension literature. This is in line with current theories of bilingual language comprehension, as they do not explicitly account for proactive language control. In the current study, we further investigated these two markers of language control and found no evidence for comprehension-based language-switch costs in six experiments, even though other types of switch costs were observed with the exact same setup (i.e., task-switch costs, stimulus modality-switch costs, and production-based language-switch costs). Furthermore, only one out of three experiments showed comprehension-based language-mixing costs, providing the first tentative evidence for proactive language control during bilingual language comprehension. The implications of the absence and occurrence of these costs are discussed in terms of processing speed and parallel language activation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 706128. This research was also supported by grants ANR-11-LABX-0036 (BLRI), ANR-16-CONV-0002 (ILCB), and ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02 from the French National Research Council (ANR)

Neurodynamics of executive control processes in bilinguals: evidence from ERP and source reconstruction analyses

International audienceThe 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

Short-Term Memory Improvement After Simultaneous Interpretation Training

open4siSimultaneous interpretation (SI) is a cognitively demanding process that has been associated with enhanced memory and executive functions. It is unclear, however, if the previously evidenced interpreter advantages are developed through training and/or experience with SI or rather represent inherent characteristics that allow success in the field. The present study aimed to disentangle these possibilities through a longitudinal examination of students earning a Master of Conference Interpreting and two control populations. The students were tested at the beginning and end of their programs on measures of memory and executive functioning that have previously demonstrated an interpreter advantage. The results revealed no inherent advantage among the students of interpretation. However, an SI training-specific advantage was revealed in verbal short-term memory; the students of interpretation, but not the two control groups, showed a gain between the testing sessions. This controlled longitudinal study demonstrates that training in simultaneous interpretation is associated with cognitive changes.openBabcock, Laura; Capizzi, Mariagrazia; Arbula, Sandra; Vallesi, AntoninoBabcock, Laura; Capizzi, Mariagrazia; Arbula, Sandra; Vallesi, Antonin

The neurocognitive fingerprint of simultaneous interpretation

The human brain is a dynamic organ which is molded throughout the lifespan by each individual\u2019s life experiences. Learning to juggle, speaking two languages, and playing the piano all number among experiences that leave an impression on the mind and brain. Little research, however, has examined one of the most demanding processes in human cognition, simultaneous interpretation (SI). In SI an individual must comprehend a stream of auditory material in one language and with a few seconds delay produce the same content in another language. This process, which is both a specialized form of bilingualism and a learned skill, similar to playing the piano, likely leaves its own distinct fingerprint on the mind and brain. The present work examines the neurocognition of professional and trainee simultaneous interpreters to better understand the process of simultaneous interpretation and the lasting impression it leaves. Bilingualism has been previously associated with advantages in cognitive control in both linguistic and non-linguistic domains. These benefits are posited to be due to bilinguals\u2019 extensive practice managing two languages. Simultaneous interpretation represents a process which requires a higher level of language management than most bilingual contexts. This increased experience may lead to quantitatively larger benefits in interpreters than in bilinguals. Additionally, interpreters may garner benefits which are unique to the interpreting experience, in particular the need to use two languages simultaneously. The first study addressed these possibilities in an examination of professional interpreters and matched multilinguals on three tasks of cognitive control. The two groups showed no differences on the color-word Stroop and Attention Network Test, tasks which have previously revealed an advantage for bilinguals. Results from a non-linguistic task-switching paradigm were mixed. Interpreters showed no additional advantage in switching costs, where bilingual benefits have previously been seen, but exhibited smaller mixing costs than the multilinguals. In comparison with previous literature, this benefit in mixing cost appears to be unique to simultaneous interpretation. Additionally, the interpreters had larger verbal and spatial memory spans than the multilinguals. The results suggest that professional interpreters do not have quantitatively larger bilingual benefits, but do possess benefits specific to experience with simultaneous interpretation As simultaneous interpretation is an acquired skill, these interpreter-specific advantages may have been gained through training in SI or represent innate differences that led individuals to the field. The second study examined students earning a Master in Conference Interpreting, and matched students in other disciplines, longitudinally to determine which cognitive abilities are innate and which are acquired through SI training. The results indicated improvements in verbal and spatial memory among the students of interpretation, but not among the students in other disciplines, suggesting that these abilities are acquired with training. An improvement in the mixing cost, however, was seen across the groups, leaving open the possibility of an influence of professional experience on this measure. Previous studies of skill acquisition have indicated that not only cognitive abilities, but also underlying brain structure is altered through the training period. To examine the effects of training in simultaneous interpretation on gray matter and white matter structure the above-mentioned groups additionally participated in neuroimaging sessions. Analysis of gray matter volume using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) revealed group differences in regions previously linked to spoken word learning, suggesting greater efficiency in these areas among students of interpretation. Additionally, changes in gray matter volume related to training in SI were evident in bilateral putamen and left superior temporal cortex, among other regions. Previous functional MRI studies of speech shadowing have found activation in these same regions, suggesting the changes may be related to the simultaneity of input and output during simultaneous interpretation. Moreover, analyses of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data revealed greater white matter integrity among the students of interpretation in tracts in the left hemisphere that underlie language. A subset of these tracts was further strengthened through training in SI. Finally, the mechanisms supporting the simultaneous use of two languages were considered, specifically addressing the possibility that interpreters apply less inhibition to the unused language. Students at various stages in their simultaneous interpretation training were tested on a three language switching paradigm. This paradigm affords a measure of inhibition of abandoned task sets through n-2 repetition costs. Though differences were found between the groups on n-2 repetition costs, these did not appear to be connected to SI training, but rather the predominant bilingual interactional context of the groups. Taken together these investigations begin to provide a picture of the effects that simultaneous interpretation has on cognitive abilities and brain structure. Specifically, interpreters appear to have a unique set of cognitive advantages that are related to the processes used during SI. Further, these advantages originate from a combination of innate and trained abilities

Executive and Language Control in the Multilingual Brain

Neuroimaging studies suggest that the neural network involved in language control may not be specific to bi-/multilingualism but is part of a domain-general executive control system. We report a trilingual case of a Cantonese (L1), English (L2), and Mandarin (L3) speaker, Dr. T, who sustained a brain injury at the age of 77 causing lesions in the left frontal lobe and in the left temporo-parietal areas resulting in fluent aphasia. Dr. T\u27s executive functions were impaired according to a modified version of the Stroop color-word test and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance was characterized by frequent perseveration errors. Dr. T demonstrated pathological language switching and mixing across her three languages. Code switching in Cantonese was more prominent in discourse production than confrontation naming. Our case suggests that voluntary control of spoken word production in trilingual speakers shares neural substrata in the frontobasal ganglia system with domain-general executive control mechanisms. One prediction is that lesions to such a system would give rise to both pathological switching and impairments of executive functions in trilingual speakers

Bilingualism: Consequences for Mind and Brain

Building on earlier evidence showing a beneficial effect of bilingualism on children’s cognitive development, we review recent studies using both behavioral and neuroimaging methods to examine the effects of bilingualism on cognition in adulthood and explore possible mechanisms for these effects. This research shows that bilingualism has a somewhat muted effect in adulthood but a larger role in older age, protecting against cognitive decline, a concept known as “cognitive reserve”. We discuss recent evidence that bilingualism is associated with a delay in the onset of symptoms of dementia. Cognitive reserve is a crucial research area in the context of an aging population; the possibility that bilingualism contributes to cognitive reserve is therefore of growing importance as populations become increasingly diverse

Brain circuit for cognitive control is shared by task and language switching

Controlling multiple languages during speech production is believed to rely on functional mechanisms that are (at least partly) shared with domain-general cognitive control in early, highly proficient bilinguals. Recent neuroimaging results have indeed suggested a certain degree of neural overlap between language control and nonverbal cognitive control in bilinguals. However, this evidence is only indirect. Direct evidence for neural overlap between language control and nonverbal cognitive control can only be provided if two prerequisites are met: Language control and nonverbal cognitive control should be compared within the same participants, and the task requirements of both conditions should be closely matched. To provide such direct evidence for the first time, we used fMRI to examine the overlap in brain activation between switch-specific activity in a linguistic switching task and a closely matched nonlinguistic switching task, within participants, in early, highly proficient Spanish-Basque bilinguals. The current findings provide direct evidence that, in these bilinguals, highly similar brain circuits are involved in language control and domaingeneral cognitive control