Individual Differences In Bilingual Experience Modulate Executive Control Network And Performance: Behavioral And Structural Neuroimaging Evidence

Federico Gallo (), Nikolay Novitskiy (), Andriy Myachykov () and Yury Shtyrov ()
Additional contact information
Federico Gallo: National Research University Higher School of Economics, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University
Nikolay Novitskiy: National Research University Higher School of Economics, Northumbria University
Andriy Myachykov: National Research University Higher School of Economics, Northumbria University
Yury Shtyrov: National Research University Higher School of Economics, Northumbria University

HSE Working papers from National Research University Higher School of Economics

Abstract: Dual/multiple language use has been suggested to affect human cognition and neural substrates. Nevertheless, considerable variability emerges concerning replicability of such effects, likely originating in the common practice of reducing the spectrum of bilingualism to a dichotomy of presence vs. absence (i.e., bi- vs. monolingualism), thus diluting the role of interindividual variability in bilingual experience in modulating neuroplastic and cognitive changes. To address this, we operationalized the main bilingual experience factors as continuous variables, investigating their effects on executive control (EC) performance and neural substrate deploying a Flanker task and structural MRI. Higher L2 proficiency predicted better executive performance. Moreover, neuroimaging results indicated that bilingualism-related neuroplasticity may peak at a certain stage of bilingual experience and eventually revert, possibly following functional specialization. Indeed, experienced bilinguals optimized behavioral performance independently of volumetric variations in executive areas. We conclude that individual differences in bilingual experience modulate bilingualism’s cognitive and neural consequences

Keywords: bilingualism; bilingual experience factors; executive control; structural MRI; region-based-morphometry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Z (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-neu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in WP BRP Series: Science, Psychology / PSY, January 2020, pages 1-35

Downloads: (external link)
https://wp.hse.ru/data/2020/01/15/1514147894/114PSY2020.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hig:wpaper:114psy2020

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in HSE Working papers from National Research University Higher School of Economics
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Shamil Abdulaev () and Shamil Abdulaev ().