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Age of second language acquisition affects nonverbal conflict processing in children: an fMRI study

BACKGROUND: In their daily communication, bilinguals switch between two languages, a process that involves the selection of a target language and minimization of interference from a nontarget language. Previous studies have uncovered the neural structure in bilinguals and the activation patterns ass...

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Autores principales: Mohades, Seyede Ghazal, Struys, Esli, Van Schuerbeek, Peter, Baeken, Chris, Van De Craen, Piet, Luypaert, Robert
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4107382/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25328840
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.246
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author Mohades, Seyede Ghazal
Struys, Esli
Van Schuerbeek, Peter
Baeken, Chris
Van De Craen, Piet
Luypaert, Robert
author_facet Mohades, Seyede Ghazal
Struys, Esli
Van Schuerbeek, Peter
Baeken, Chris
Van De Craen, Piet
Luypaert, Robert
author_sort Mohades, Seyede Ghazal
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In their daily communication, bilinguals switch between two languages, a process that involves the selection of a target language and minimization of interference from a nontarget language. Previous studies have uncovered the neural structure in bilinguals and the activation patterns associated with performing verbal conflict tasks. One question that remains, however is whether this extra verbal switching affects brain function during nonverbal conflict tasks. METHODS: In this study, we have used fMRI to investigate the impact of bilingualism in children performing two nonverbal tasks involving stimulus–stimulus and stimulus–response conflicts. Three groups of 8–11-year-old children – bilinguals from birth (2L1), second language learners (L2L), and a control group of monolinguals (1L1) – were scanned while performing a color Simon and a numerical Stroop task. Reaction times and accuracy were logged. RESULTS: Compared to monolingual controls, bilingual children showed higher behavioral congruency effect of these tasks, which is matched by the recruitment of brain regions that are generally used in general cognitive control, language processing or to solve language conflict situations in bilinguals (caudate nucleus, posterior cingulate gyrus, STG, precuneus). Further, the activation of these areas was found to be higher in 2L1 compared to L2L. CONCLUSION: The coupling of longer reaction times to the recruitment of extra language-related brain areas supports the hypothesis that when dealing with language conflicts the specialization of bilinguals hampers the way they can process with nonverbal conflicts, at least at early stages in life.
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spelling pubmed-41073822014-07-23 Age of second language acquisition affects nonverbal conflict processing in children: an fMRI study Mohades, Seyede Ghazal Struys, Esli Van Schuerbeek, Peter Baeken, Chris Van De Craen, Piet Luypaert, Robert Brain Behav Original Research BACKGROUND: In their daily communication, bilinguals switch between two languages, a process that involves the selection of a target language and minimization of interference from a nontarget language. Previous studies have uncovered the neural structure in bilinguals and the activation patterns associated with performing verbal conflict tasks. One question that remains, however is whether this extra verbal switching affects brain function during nonverbal conflict tasks. METHODS: In this study, we have used fMRI to investigate the impact of bilingualism in children performing two nonverbal tasks involving stimulus–stimulus and stimulus–response conflicts. Three groups of 8–11-year-old children – bilinguals from birth (2L1), second language learners (L2L), and a control group of monolinguals (1L1) – were scanned while performing a color Simon and a numerical Stroop task. Reaction times and accuracy were logged. RESULTS: Compared to monolingual controls, bilingual children showed higher behavioral congruency effect of these tasks, which is matched by the recruitment of brain regions that are generally used in general cognitive control, language processing or to solve language conflict situations in bilinguals (caudate nucleus, posterior cingulate gyrus, STG, precuneus). Further, the activation of these areas was found to be higher in 2L1 compared to L2L. CONCLUSION: The coupling of longer reaction times to the recruitment of extra language-related brain areas supports the hypothesis that when dealing with language conflicts the specialization of bilinguals hampers the way they can process with nonverbal conflicts, at least at early stages in life. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2014-09 2014-07-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4107382/ /pubmed/25328840 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.246 Text en © 2014 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Mohades, Seyede Ghazal
Struys, Esli
Van Schuerbeek, Peter
Baeken, Chris
Van De Craen, Piet
Luypaert, Robert
Age of second language acquisition affects nonverbal conflict processing in children: an fMRI study
title Age of second language acquisition affects nonverbal conflict processing in children: an fMRI study
title_full Age of second language acquisition affects nonverbal conflict processing in children: an fMRI study
title_fullStr Age of second language acquisition affects nonverbal conflict processing in children: an fMRI study
title_full_unstemmed Age of second language acquisition affects nonverbal conflict processing in children: an fMRI study
title_short Age of second language acquisition affects nonverbal conflict processing in children: an fMRI study
title_sort age of second language acquisition affects nonverbal conflict processing in children: an fmri study
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4107382/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25328840
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/brb3.246
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