Effect of bilingualism on cognitive control in the Simon task: evidence from MEG

The present study used magneto-encephalography (MEG) to determine the neural correlates of the bilingual advantage previously reported for behavioral measures in conflict tasks. Bilingual Cantonese–English, bilingual French–English, and monolingual English speakers, performed the Simon task in the M...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Fla.), 2005, Vol.24 (1), p.40-49
Main Authors: Bialystok, Ellen, Craik, Fergus I.M., Grady, Cheryl, Chau, Wilkin, Ishii, Ryouhei, Gunji, Atsuko, Pantev, Christo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attention - physiology
Behavior
Bilingualism
Brain Mapping
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive ability
Color Perception - physiology
Conflict (Psychology)
Discrimination Learning - physiology
Dominance, Cerebral - physiology
Female
Gyrus Cinguli - physiology
Humans
Language
Magnetoencephalography
Male
MEG
Multilingualism
Nerve Net - physiology
Neuropsychological Tests
Prefrontal Cortex - physiology
Reaction Time - physiology
Reading
Reference Values
Semantics
Simon task
Temporal Lobe - physiology
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Summary:The present study used magneto-encephalography (MEG) to determine the neural correlates of the bilingual advantage previously reported for behavioral measures in conflict tasks. Bilingual Cantonese–English, bilingual French–English, and monolingual English speakers, performed the Simon task in the MEG. Reaction times were faster for congruent than for incongruent trials, and the Cantonese group was faster than the other two groups, which did not differ from each other. Analyses of the MEG data using synthetic aperture magnetometry (SAM) and partial last squares (PLS) showed that the same pattern of activity, involving signal changes in left and medial prefrontal areas, characterized all three groups. Correlations between activated regions and reaction times, however, showed that the two bilingual groups demonstrated faster reaction times with greater activity in superior and middle temporal, cingulate, and superior and inferior frontal regions, largely in the left hemisphere. The monolinguals demonstrated faster reaction times with activation in middle frontal regions. The interpretation is that the management of two language systems led to systematic changes in frontal executive functions.
ISSN:1053-8119
1095-9572
DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.09.044