Language and task switching in the bilingual brain: Bilinguals are staying, not switching, experts.

ABSTRACT: Bilinguals' ability to control which language they speak and to switch between languages may rely on neurocognitive mechanisms shared with non-linguistic task switching. However, recent studies also reveal some limitations on the extent control mechanisms are shared across domains, introducing the possibility that some control mechanisms are unique to language. We investigated this hypothesis by directly comparing the neural correlates of task switching and language switching. Nineteen Spanish-English bilingual university students underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study employing a hybrid (event-related and blocked) design involving both color-shape switching and language switching paradigms. We compared the two switching tasks using within-subject voxel-wise t-tests

SUBMITTER: Weissberger GH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4596720 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature