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Bilingualism and language similarity modify the neural mechanisms of selective attention

Learning and using multiple languages places major demands on our neurocognitive system, which can impact the way the brain processes information. Here we investigated how early bilingualism influences the neural mechanisms of auditory selective attention, and whether this is further affected by the...

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Autores principales: Olguin, Andrea, Cekic, Mario, Bekinschtein, Tristan A., Katsos, Napoleon, Bozic, Mirjana
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6547874/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31160645
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44782-3
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author Olguin, Andrea
Cekic, Mario
Bekinschtein, Tristan A.
Katsos, Napoleon
Bozic, Mirjana
author_facet Olguin, Andrea
Cekic, Mario
Bekinschtein, Tristan A.
Katsos, Napoleon
Bozic, Mirjana
author_sort Olguin, Andrea
collection PubMed
description Learning and using multiple languages places major demands on our neurocognitive system, which can impact the way the brain processes information. Here we investigated how early bilingualism influences the neural mechanisms of auditory selective attention, and whether this is further affected by the typological similarity between languages. We tested the neural encoding of continuous attended speech in early balanced bilinguals of typologically similar (Dutch-English) and dissimilar languages (Spanish-English) and compared them to results from English monolinguals we reported earlier. In a dichotic listening paradigm, participants attended to a narrative in their native language while ignoring different types of interference in the other ear. The results revealed that bilingualism modulates the neural mechanisms of selective attention even in the absence of consistent behavioural differences between monolinguals and bilinguals. They also suggested that typological similarity between languages helps fine-tune this modulation, reflecting life-long experiences with resolving competition between more or less similar candidates. The effects were consistent over the time-course of the narrative and suggest that learning a second language at an early age triggers neuroplastic adaptation of the attentional processing system.
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spelling pubmed-65478742019-06-12 Bilingualism and language similarity modify the neural mechanisms of selective attention Olguin, Andrea Cekic, Mario Bekinschtein, Tristan A. Katsos, Napoleon Bozic, Mirjana Sci Rep Article Learning and using multiple languages places major demands on our neurocognitive system, which can impact the way the brain processes information. Here we investigated how early bilingualism influences the neural mechanisms of auditory selective attention, and whether this is further affected by the typological similarity between languages. We tested the neural encoding of continuous attended speech in early balanced bilinguals of typologically similar (Dutch-English) and dissimilar languages (Spanish-English) and compared them to results from English monolinguals we reported earlier. In a dichotic listening paradigm, participants attended to a narrative in their native language while ignoring different types of interference in the other ear. The results revealed that bilingualism modulates the neural mechanisms of selective attention even in the absence of consistent behavioural differences between monolinguals and bilinguals. They also suggested that typological similarity between languages helps fine-tune this modulation, reflecting life-long experiences with resolving competition between more or less similar candidates. The effects were consistent over the time-course of the narrative and suggest that learning a second language at an early age triggers neuroplastic adaptation of the attentional processing system. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-06-03 /pmc/articles/PMC6547874/ /pubmed/31160645 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44782-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Olguin, Andrea
Cekic, Mario
Bekinschtein, Tristan A.
Katsos, Napoleon
Bozic, Mirjana
Bilingualism and language similarity modify the neural mechanisms of selective attention
title Bilingualism and language similarity modify the neural mechanisms of selective attention
title_full Bilingualism and language similarity modify the neural mechanisms of selective attention
title_fullStr Bilingualism and language similarity modify the neural mechanisms of selective attention
title_full_unstemmed Bilingualism and language similarity modify the neural mechanisms of selective attention
title_short Bilingualism and language similarity modify the neural mechanisms of selective attention
title_sort bilingualism and language similarity modify the neural mechanisms of selective attention
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6547874/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31160645
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44782-3
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