Cargando…

Language switching decomposed through MEG and evidence from bimodal bilinguals

A defining feature of human cognition is the ability to quickly and accurately alternate between complex behaviors. One striking example of such an ability is bilinguals’ capacity to rapidly switch between languages. This switching process minimally comprises disengagement from the previous language...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Blanco-Elorrieta, Esti, Emmorey, Karen, Pylkkänen, Liina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6166835/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30206151
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1809779115
_version_ 1783360099146792960
author Blanco-Elorrieta, Esti
Emmorey, Karen
Pylkkänen, Liina
author_facet Blanco-Elorrieta, Esti
Emmorey, Karen
Pylkkänen, Liina
author_sort Blanco-Elorrieta, Esti
collection PubMed
description A defining feature of human cognition is the ability to quickly and accurately alternate between complex behaviors. One striking example of such an ability is bilinguals’ capacity to rapidly switch between languages. This switching process minimally comprises disengagement from the previous language and engagement in a new language. Previous studies have associated language switching with increased prefrontal activity. However, it is unknown how the subcomputations of language switching individually contribute to these activities, because few natural situations enable full separation of disengagement and engagement processes during switching. We recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG) from American Sign Language–English bilinguals who often sign and speak simultaneously, which allows to dissociate engagement and disengagement. MEG data showed that turning a language “off” (switching from simultaneous to single language production) led to increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), while turning a language “on” (switching from one language to two simultaneously) did not. The distinct representational nature of these on and off processes was also supported by multivariate decoding analyses. Additionally, Granger causality analyses revealed that (i) compared with “turning on” a language, “turning off” required stronger connectivity between left and right dlPFC, and (ii) dlPFC activity predicted ACC activity, consistent with models in which the dlPFC is a top–down modulator of the ACC. These results suggest that the burden of language switching lies in disengagement from the previous language as opposed to engaging a new language and that, in the absence of motor constraints, producing two languages simultaneously is not necessarily more cognitively costly than producing one.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6166835
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher National Academy of Sciences
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-61668352018-10-02 Language switching decomposed through MEG and evidence from bimodal bilinguals Blanco-Elorrieta, Esti Emmorey, Karen Pylkkänen, Liina Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Social Sciences A defining feature of human cognition is the ability to quickly and accurately alternate between complex behaviors. One striking example of such an ability is bilinguals’ capacity to rapidly switch between languages. This switching process minimally comprises disengagement from the previous language and engagement in a new language. Previous studies have associated language switching with increased prefrontal activity. However, it is unknown how the subcomputations of language switching individually contribute to these activities, because few natural situations enable full separation of disengagement and engagement processes during switching. We recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG) from American Sign Language–English bilinguals who often sign and speak simultaneously, which allows to dissociate engagement and disengagement. MEG data showed that turning a language “off” (switching from simultaneous to single language production) led to increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), while turning a language “on” (switching from one language to two simultaneously) did not. The distinct representational nature of these on and off processes was also supported by multivariate decoding analyses. Additionally, Granger causality analyses revealed that (i) compared with “turning on” a language, “turning off” required stronger connectivity between left and right dlPFC, and (ii) dlPFC activity predicted ACC activity, consistent with models in which the dlPFC is a top–down modulator of the ACC. These results suggest that the burden of language switching lies in disengagement from the previous language as opposed to engaging a new language and that, in the absence of motor constraints, producing two languages simultaneously is not necessarily more cognitively costly than producing one. National Academy of Sciences 2018-09-25 2018-09-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6166835/ /pubmed/30206151 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1809779115 Text en Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Social Sciences
Blanco-Elorrieta, Esti
Emmorey, Karen
Pylkkänen, Liina
Language switching decomposed through MEG and evidence from bimodal bilinguals
title Language switching decomposed through MEG and evidence from bimodal bilinguals
title_full Language switching decomposed through MEG and evidence from bimodal bilinguals
title_fullStr Language switching decomposed through MEG and evidence from bimodal bilinguals
title_full_unstemmed Language switching decomposed through MEG and evidence from bimodal bilinguals
title_short Language switching decomposed through MEG and evidence from bimodal bilinguals
title_sort language switching decomposed through meg and evidence from bimodal bilinguals
topic Social Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6166835/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30206151
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1809779115
work_keys_str_mv AT blancoelorrietaesti languageswitchingdecomposedthroughmegandevidencefrombimodalbilinguals
AT emmoreykaren languageswitchingdecomposedthroughmegandevidencefrombimodalbilinguals
AT pylkkanenliina languageswitchingdecomposedthroughmegandevidencefrombimodalbilinguals