Journal
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 9, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00395
Keywords
bilingualism; inhibitory control; dual-language contexts; fMRI; effective connectivity
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31500924, 31671133]
- MOE Project of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Universities [13JJD740009]
- Scientific Research Starting Foundation for Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars
- Shenzhen Science and Technology Research Funding Program [JCYJ20170412164413575]
- K. C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University
- Open Grant of State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning
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The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated influences of language contexts on inhibitory control and the underlying neural processes. Thirty Cantonese-Mandarin-English trilingual speakers, who were highly proficient in Cantonese (L1) and Mandarin (L2), and moderately proficient in English (L3), performed a picture-naming task in three dual-language contexts (L1-L2, L2-L3, and L1-L3). After each of the three naming tasks, participants performed a flanker task, measuring contextual effects on the inhibitory control system. Behavioral results showed a typical flanker effect in the L2-L3 and L1-L3 condition, but not in the L1-L2 condition, which indicates contextual facilitation on inhibitory control performance by the L1-L2 context. Whole brain analysis of the fMRI data acquired during the flanker tasks showed more neural activations in the right prefrontal cortex and subcortical areas in the L2-L3 and L1-L3 condition on one hand as compared to the L1-L2 condition on the other hand, suggesting greater involvement of the cognitive control areas when participants were performing the flanker task in L2-L3 and L1-L3 contexts. Effective connectivity analyses displayed a cortical-subcortical-cerebellar circuitry for inhibitory control in the trilinguals. However, contrary to the right-lateralized network in the L1-L2 condition, functional networks for inhibitory control in the L2-L3 and L1-L3 condition are less integrated and more left-lateralized. These findings provide a novel perspective for investigating the interaction between bilingualism (multilingualism) and inhibitory control by demonstrating instant behavioral effects and neural plasticity as a function of changes in global language contexts.
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