Inhibitory Control in Bilinguals and Musicians: Event Related Potential (ERP) Evidence for Experience-Specific Effects

Abstract

Bilinguals and musicians exhibit behavioral advantages on tasks with high demands on executive functioning, particularly inhibitory control, but the brain mechanisms supporting these differences are unclear. Of key interest is whether these forms of experience influence cognition through similar or distinct information processing mechanisms. Here, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in three groups – bilinguals, musicians, and controls – who completed a visual go-nogo task that involved the withholding of key presses to rare targets. Participants in each group achieved similar accuracy rates and responses times but the analysis of cortical responses revealed significant differences in ERP waveforms. Success in withholding a prepotent response was associated with enhanced stimulus-locked N2 and P3 wave amplitude relative to go trials. For nogo trials, there were altered timing-specific ERP differences and graded amplitude differences observed in the neural responses across groups. Specifically, musicians showed an enhanced early P2 response accompanied by reduced N2 amplitude whereas bilinguals showed increased N2 amplitude coupled with an increased late positivity wave relative to controls. These findings demonstrate that bilingualism and music training have differential effects on the brain networks supporting executive control over behavior.

Early stage second-language learning improves executive control: Evidence from ERP

“…Unlike the mean amplitude analyses of the sentence judgment components (N400/P600), peak amplitude and peak latency were measured during the N2 (200-350 ms) and P3 (350-500 ms) time windows, both because of the characteristics of the waveforms (the N2/P3 complex provides measurable peaks) and to be consistent with prior research (Moreno et al, 2014). The frontal-central electrode sites were arranged in a 2 (anterior-posterior) by 3 (medial-lateral) grouping (F1, Fz, F2, FC1, FCz, FC2).…”

“…Because children are in the process of developing competence across all domains of knowledge, a more stringent test of experience-induced plasticity must be based on evidence from adults. All of the tasks used in the present study have previously demonstrated advantages in fully bilingual adults compared to monolinguals: verbal fluency (letter condition; Luo, Luk, & Bialystok, 2010), metalinguistic task (grammaticality judgment; Moreno, Bialystok, Wodniecka, & Alain, 2010), and nonverbal control (go-nogo; Moreno, Wodniecka, Tays, Alain, & Bialystok, 2014).…”

“…Nogo trials show greater amplitude for both negative (N2) and positive (P3) waves compared to go trials reflecting the requirement for greater attentional resources in those nogo trials (Lavric, Pizzagalli, & Forstmeier, 2004). In two studies, bilinguals showed larger N2 amplitude than monolinguals indicating better control on nogo trials and a more efficient executive control system (Fernandez, Tartar, Padron, & Acosta, 2013;Moreno et al, 2014).…”

Tuning the mind: Exploring the connections between musical ability and executive functions

“…Musical experience might therefore lead to general inhibitory control advantages (Moreno & Farzan, 2015). In fact, adult musicians show faster responses than non-musician controls in conflict conditions of both a pitch-based auditory Stroop task and in a visual "Simon Arrows" task (Bialystok & DePape, 2009), musicians outperform non-musicians on a stop-signal task (Strait, Kraus, Parbery-Clark, & Ashley, 2010; see also Moreno, Wodniecka, Tays, Alain, & Bialystok, 2014), and professional musicians show smaller color/word Stroop interference effects than amateur musicians (Travis, Harung, & Lagrosen, 2011). These findings are not limited to college-aged participants: five-year-old children assigned to a four-week intensive computerized musical training improved more than a visual art training control group on a go/no-go task (and showed corresponding changes in electrophysiological responses; Moreno, Bialystok, Barac, Schellenberg, Cepeda, & Chau, 2011).…”

Got Rhythm? Better Inhibitory Control Is Linked with More Consistent Drumming and Enhanced Neural Tracking of the Musical Beat in Adult Percussionists and Nonpercussionists

“…Several studies have demonstrated enhanced inhibitory control in musicians compared with nonmusician peers, both in musically trained adults (Moussard, Bermudez, Alain, Tays, & Moreno, 2016;Moreno, Wodniecka, Tays, Alain, & Bialystok, 2014;Zuk, Benjamin, Kenyon, & Gaab, 2014;Bialystok & Depape, 2009;Bugos, Perlstein, McCrae, Brophy, & Bedenbaugh, 2007) and in children participating in early childhood music programs ( Joret, Germeys, & Gidron, 2016). Although these group differences could reflect innate predispositions rather than causal effects of training, they are supported by longitudinal evidence for improved inhibitory control with short-term music training (Moreno et al, 2011).…”