The importance of neuroscience in understanding bilingual cognitive control

Vaughn, Kelly A.; Greene, Maya; Ramos-Nuñez, Aurora I.; Hernández, Arturo E.

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.06.010

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Bilingualism has also been hypothesized to result in more efficient language learning, in terms of the attainment of both general language proficiency (Cenoz & Valencia, ; Swain, Lapkin, Rowen, & Hart, ) and of literacy skills (e.g., Kovelman, Baker, & Petitto, ). However, a whole body of evidence questioning the notion of a general bilingual advantage has emerged recently, relating to: the hybridity of experiences of bilinguals in these studies, which may be associated with a subject selection bias (De Angelis, ); the social dimensions of bilingualism, that is, the influence of and changes in lifestyle, L2 learning motivation, overall well‐being, general communicative skills, the status/prestige of the languages in question, teachers’ cultural responsiveness, and so forth (e.g., Agirdag, ; Goriot et al., ); a priori cognitive ability (Keijzer & Schmid, ); methodological inconsistencies, for example, the differential effects of bilingualism on verbal and nonverbal task performance (Duñabeitia & Carreiras, ; Paap, Johnson, & Sawi, ; Vaughn, Greene, Ramos Nuñez, & Hernandez, ); and an alleged publication bias favoring positive outcomes over null effects and possibly leading to a false representation of the true situation (see Bialystok, Kroll, Green, MacWhinney, & Craik, ; de Bot, ; de Bruin, Treccani, & Della Sala, ). …”

Section: Age and The Bilingual Advantagementioning

confidence: 99%

Starting Age Overshadowed: The Primacy of Differential Environmental and Family Support Effects on Second Language Attainment in an Instructional Context

Pfenninger

Singleton

2018

Language Learning

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Despite contrary research findings, many laypeople still claim that starting second language (L2) instruction early yields linguistic advantages. This assertion is again undermined by a 5‐year longitudinal study conducted in Switzerland testing the English language skills of 636 secondary‐school students who had all learned Standard German and French at primary school, but only half of whom had learned English from age 8, the remainder having started English 5 years later. The results suggest that age‐related attainment effects are overshadowed by other effects, yielding diverse outcomes according to individual differences and contextual effects mediating L2 outcomes. An earlier age of learning proved beneficial only for children raised as biliterate simultaneous bilinguals receiving substantial parental support, as opposed to monolinguals and nonbiliterate bilinguals (simultaneous or sequential). These issues require studies that explore what underlies age effects in L2 learning and investigate how learning contexts shape processes of L2 development.

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Section: Age and The Bilingual Advantagementioning

confidence: 99%

Starting Age Overshadowed: The Primacy of Differential Environmental and Family Support Effects on Second Language Attainment in an Instructional Context

Pfenninger

Singleton

2018

Language Learning

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“…Research investigating the bilingual advantage is based to a greater extent on behavior; the brain mechanisms underlying potential differences in the use of cognitive control in bilinguals relative to monolinguals have not received nearly as much attention. Whether language experience results in behavioral differences or not, it is entirely possible that learning two languages results in differences at the neural level ( Vaughn et al, 2015 ). Furthermore, researchers have begun to offer theoretical models that account for the effects that bilingual experience has on the cognitive control system, including the Bilingual Adaptation Model, the Adaptive Control Hypothesis (ACH) and the “Brain Training” model.…”

Section: The Bilingual Cognitive Advantage: Findings and Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symbiosis, Parasitism and Bilingual Cognitive Control: A Neuroemergentist Perspective

et al. 2018

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Interest in the intersection between bilingualism and cognitive control and accessibility to neuroimaging methods has resulted in numerous studies with a variety of interpretations of the bilingual cognitive advantage. Neurocomputational Emergentism (or Neuroemergentism for short) is a new framework for understanding this relationship between bilingualism and cognitive control. This framework considers Emergence, in which two small elements are recombined in an interactive manner, yielding a non-linear effect. Added to this is the notion that Emergence can be captured in neural systems using computationally inspired models. This review poses that bilingualism and cognitive control, as examined through the Neuroemergentist framework, are interwoven through development and involve the non-linear growth of cognitive processing encompassing brain areas that combine and recombine, in symbiotic and parasitic ways, in order to handle more complex types of processing. The models that have sought to explain the neural substrates of bilingual cognitive differences will be discussed with a reinterpretation of the entire bilingual cognitive advantage within a Neuroemergentist framework incorporating its neural bases. It will conclude by discussing how this new Neuroemergentist approach alters our view of the effects of language experience on cognitive control. Avenues to move beyond the simple notion of a bilingual advantage or lack thereof will be proposed.

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“…Finding that bilinguals with higher proficiencies in each language have different patterns of neural activity than bilinguals with lower proficiencies, for example, would support the idea that language itself is shaping the brain to handle cognitive control tasks, and not other variables that may differ between bilingual and monolingual groups. As stated in a recent paper by Vaughn, Greene, Ramos-Nuñez, and Hernandez (2015), the authors believe that understanding differences within the bilingual population is important for understanding the relationship between language and cognition in the brain.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some researchers argue that regardless of direction, differences in neural activity related to bilingualism, whether through a comparison of monolinguals and bilinguals, or through an examination of individual differences within bilinguals, can demonstrate that bilingualism changes the brain in a way that relates to cognitive control (Kousaie & Taler, 2015; Vaughn, Greene, Ramos Nunez, & Hernandez, 2015). In the current study, neither AOA nor English proficiency was associated with response times for the Simon task, but both were associated with ACC activity during the task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual differences in the bilingual brain: The role of language background and DRD2 genotype in verbal and non-verbal cognitive control

Vaughn

Ramos-Nuñez

Greene

et al. 2016

Journal of Neurolinguistics

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Bilingual language control may involve cognitive control, including inhibition and switching. These types of control have been previously associated with neural activity in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). In previous studies, the DRD2 gene, related to dopamine availability in the striatum, has been found to play a role in neural activity during cognitive control tasks, with carriers of the gene’s A1 allele showing different patterns of activity in inferior frontal regions during cognitive control tasks than non-carriers. The current study sought to extend these findings to the domain of bilingual language control. Forty-nine Spanish-English bilinguals participated in this study by providing DNA samples through saliva, completing background questionnaires, and performing a language production task (picture-naming), a non-verbal inhibition task (Simon task), and a non-verbal switching task (shape-color task) in the fMRI scanner. The fMRI data were analyzed to determine whether variation in the genetic background or bilingual language background predicts neural activity in the IFG and ACC during these three tasks. Results indicate that genetic and language background variables predicted neural activity in the IFG during English picture naming. Variation in only the genetic background predicted neural activity in the ACC during the shape-color switching task; variation in only the language background predicted neural activity in the ACC and IFG during the Simon task. These results suggest that variation in the DRD2 gene should not be ignored when drawing conclusions about bilingual verbal and non-verbal cognitive control.

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The importance of neuroscience in understanding bilingual cognitive control

Cited by 13 publications

References 12 publications

Starting Age Overshadowed: The Primacy of Differential Environmental and Family Support Effects on Second Language Attainment in an Instructional Context

Starting Age Overshadowed: The Primacy of Differential Environmental and Family Support Effects on Second Language Attainment in an Instructional Context

Symbiosis, Parasitism and Bilingual Cognitive Control: A Neuroemergentist Perspective

Individual differences in the bilingual brain: The role of language background and DRD2 genotype in verbal and non-verbal cognitive control

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