Bilinguals use language-control brain areas more than monolinguals to perform non-linguistic switching tasks

• Published in: PloS one 2013
• Main Authors: Rodríguez Pujadas, Aina, Sanjuán, Ana, Ventura Campos, Noelia, Román, Patricia, Martin, Clara D, Barceló-Arroyo, Francisco, Costa, Albert, 1970, Ávila, César
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073028.

We tested the hypothesis that early bilinguals use language-control brain areas more than monolinguals when performing/nnon-linguistic executive control tasks. We do so by exploring the brain activity of early bilinguals and monolinguals in a taskswitching/nparadigm using an embedded critical trial design. Crucially, the task was designed such that the behavioural/nperformance of the two groups was comparable, allowing then to have a safer comparison between the corresponding/nbrain activity in the two groups. Despite the lack of behavioural differences between both groups, early bilinguals used/nlanguage-control areas – such as left caudate, and left inferior and middle frontal gyri – more than monolinguals, when/nperforming the switching task. Results offer direct support for the notion that, early bilingualism exerts an effect in the/nneural circuitry responsible for executive control. This effect partially involves the recruitment of brain areas involved in/nlanguage control when performing domain-general executive control tasks, highlighting the cross-talk between these two/ndomains. This work was supported by two grants of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology given to CA (the BrainGlot Project, CSD2007-00012 (funded by the Consolider-Ingenio 2010 programme), and the grant PSI2010-20168) and a grant given to AC (PSI2008 -01191). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.