Cognitive control regions are recruited in bilinguals' silent reading of mixed-language paragraphs

Abstract

When switching languages, bilinguals recruit a 'language control network' that overlaps with brain regions known to support general cognitive control, but it is unclear whether these same regions are recruited in passive comprehension of language switches. Using fMRI with a blocked design, 24 Spanish-English bilinguals silently read 36 paragraphs in which the default language was Spanish or English, and that had either 1) no switches, 2) function word switches or 3) content word switches. Relative to no switches, function switches activated the right IFG, bilateral MFG, and left IPL/ SMG. In contrast, switching on content words produced limited neural switching costs, and language dominance effects were also small. Finally, neural switching costs in silent reading were correlated with switching costs in cued picture-naming. Seemingly passive reading comprehension involves brain regions known to support cognitive control in active switching during production, possibly reflecting the operation of a modality-general switch mechanism.

Explaining Individual Differences in Executive Functions Performance in Multilinguals: The Impact of Code-Switching and Alternating Between Multicultural Identity Styles

“…Neuroimaging evidence supporting this assumption demonstrates that there is indeed an overlap in brain networks involved in language selection and non-verbal task switching (Abutalebi and Green, 2007;Luk et al, 2011;De Baene et al, 2015). However, in recent studies such an overlap is further specified as being valid for bilinguals only (Anderson et al, 2018;Wu et al, 2019;Stasenko et al, 2020;Sulpizio et al, 2020).…”

Contributions of Demographics, Language Learning Experience, and Cognitive Control to Chinese Reading Comprehension

“…More recently, some studies have examined the relationship between cognitive factors and reading comprehension (e.g., Chung et al, 2020 ; Stasenko et al, 2020 ; Wu et al, 2020 ). For example, Chung et al (2011) identified cognitive abilities that might distinguish Hong Kong Chinese adolescents with dyslexia and to assess how these abilities were associated with Chinese word reading, word dictation, and reading comprehension.…”

“…Reading comprehension is quite cognitive-taxing as individuals have to go through all linguistic levels from phonological level to textual level to understand the meaning of text and form a coherent mental representation of linguistics forms ( Kendeou et al, 2014 ). Some studies have suggested that cognitive control should play a role in reading process (e.g., Kieffer et al, 2013 ; Fedorenko, 2014 ; Follmer, 2018 ; Liu et al, 2018 ; Cirino et al, 2019 ), based on behavioral evidence, brain imaging studies, and investigations of brains damage (e.g., Johann et al, 2020 ; Stasenko et al, 2020 ). As mentioned above, cognitive control is an umbrella term covering inhibition, shifting and working memory updating and monitoring.…”