Abstract
The beneficial effects of bilingualism on executive functions have been shown through studies that demonstrated the outperformance of bilingual individuals than monolingual individuals in cognitive tasks involving attention, working memory and conflict resolution. However, the neural mechanisms of how bilingualism influence these cognitive processes remains unclear. In addition, there is a considerable amount of diversities and inconsistencies in the link between bilingualism and executive control, which altogether require a thorough discussion. In this paper, we will provide a concise and informative mini-review of how one cultural experience—bilingualism influences executive control and explore the underlying brain mechanisms that reveal the relationship among bilingualism, executive control and neuroplasticity. Furthermore, how bilingualism could benefit other important aspects of regulatory processes through interacting executive control are also discussed.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research. We thank Michael Posner for his insightful comments.
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Tang, R., Tang, YY. Bilingualism, executive control and neuroplasticity. Cult. Brain 3, 68–74 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40167-015-0028-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40167-015-0028-x