scholarly journals Proactive and Reactive Language Control in the Bilingual Brain

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Seo ◽  
Chantel S. Prat

The current experiment investigated bilingual language control within the dual mechanisms framework. In an fMRI investigation of morphosyntactic rule production, the presence or absence of target language cues was manipulated to investigate the neural mechanisms associated with proactive and reactive global language control mechanisms. Patterns of activation across nine regions of interest (ROIs) were investigated in seventeen early Spanish–English bilingual speakers. A cue by phase interaction in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and pre-supplementary motor area (Pre-SMA) was observed, suggesting that these regions were more active during cue phases, and less active during execution phases, when target language cues were presented. Individual differences analyses showed that variability in proactive control (informative > non-informative cued trial activation during preparation) in the basal ganglia was correlated with proactive control in the left DLPFC, left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and right precentral ROIs. In contrast, reactive control (non-informative > informative cued activation during execution) in the anterior cingulate was correlated with reactive control in the Pre-SMA and left orbital frontal ROIs. The results suggest that, consistent with the dual mechanisms framework, bilinguals differ in the degree to which they use cues to proactively prepare to use a target language.

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 570-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Cattaneo ◽  
Albert Costa ◽  
Alexandre Gironell ◽  
Marco Calabria

AbstractThis study investigates the relationship between mechanisms involved in language control within dual- and single-language contexts by examining whether they are similarly impaired in bilingual PD patients. To do so, we explored the performance of bilingual individuals affected by PD and healthy controls on two linguistic tasks: between-language and within-language switching tasks. We focused on switch and mixing costs as measures of linguistic control.The results indicate that, whereas larger switch costs were observed in PD patients, compared to controls, solely during the between-language task, larger mixing costs appeared during both the between-language task and the within-language task. These results are discussed within the framework of the dual mechanism hypothesis, which suggests that switch and mixing costs are measures of two types of control: specifically reactive and proactive control. Therefore, we conclude that reactive control for switching between languages is domain-specific while proactive control mechanisms are more domain-general.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 1219-1232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucía Magis-Weinberg ◽  
Ruud Custers ◽  
Iroise Dumontheil

Abstract Cognitive control allows the coordination of cognitive processes to achieve goals. Control may be sustained in anticipation of goal-relevant cues (proactive control) or transient in response to the cues themselves (reactive control). Adolescents typically exhibit a more reactive pattern than adults in the absence of incentives. We investigated how reward modulates cognitive control engagement in a letter-array working memory (WM) task in 30 adolescents (12–17 years) and 20 adults (23–30 years) using a mixed block- and event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging design. After a Baseline run without rewards, participants performed a Reward run where 50% trials were monetarily rewarded. Accuracy and reaction time (RT) differences between Reward and Baseline runs indicated engagement of proactive control, which was associated with increased sustained activity in the bilateral anterior insula (AI), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and right posterior parietal cortex (PPC). RT differences between Reward and No reward trials of the Reward run suggested additional reactive engagement of cognitive control, accompanied with transient activation in bilateral AI, lateral PFC, PPC, supplementary motor area, anterior cingulate cortex, putamen and caudate. Despite behavioural and neural differences during Baseline WM task performance, adolescents and adults showed similar modulations of proactive and reactive control by reward.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Nicholas Grunden ◽  
Giorgio Piazza ◽  
Carmen García-Sánchez ◽  
Marco Calabria

As studies of bilingual language control (BLC) seek to explore the underpinnings of bilinguals’ abilities to juggle two languages, different types of language switching tasks have been used to uncover switching and mixing effects and thereby reveal what proactive and reactive control mechanisms are involved in language switching. Voluntary language switching tasks, where a bilingual participant can switch freely between their languages while naming, are being utilized more often due to their greater ecological validity compared to cued switching paradigms. Because this type of task had not yet been applied to language switching in bilingual patients, our study sought to explore voluntary switching in bilinguals with aphasia (BWAs) as well as in healthy bilinguals. In Experiment 1, we replicated previously reported results of switch costs and mixing benefits within our own bilingual population of Catalan-Spanish bilinguals. With Experiment 2, we compared both the performances of BWAs as a group and as individuals against control group performance. Results illustrated a complex picture of language control abilities, indicating varying degrees of association and dissociation between factors of BLC. Given the diversity of impairments in BWAs’ language control mechanisms, we highlight the need to examine BLC at the individual level and through the lens of theoretical cognitive control frameworks in order to further parse out how bilinguals regulate their language switching.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 606-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Wolleb ◽  
Antonella Sorace ◽  
Marit Westergaard

Abstract In this paper, we explore the role of cognition in bilingual syntactic processing by employing a structural priming paradigm. A group of Norwegian-English bilingual children and an age-matched group of Norwegian monolingual children were tested in a priming task that included both a within-language and a between-language priming condition. Results show that the priming effect between-language was not significantly smaller than the effect within-language. We argue that this is because language control mechanisms do not affect the access to the shared grammar. In addition, we investigate the interaction between the children’s performance in the priming task and in a non-linguistic cognitive task and find that the two measures are not correlated; however, we find a correlation between the cognitive task and language control, which we measured by counting the number of trials produced in the non-target language. Our findings suggest that language control and domain-general executive control overlap only partially.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse C Niebaum ◽  
Nicolas Chevalier ◽  
Ryan Mori Guild ◽  
Yuko Munakata

Developmental changes in executive function are often explained in terms of core cognitive processes and associated neural substrates. For example, younger children tend to engage control reactively in the moment as needed, whereas older children increasingly engage control proactively, in anticipation of needing it. Such developments may reflect increasing capacities for active maintenance dependent upon dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. However, younger children will engage proactive control when reactive control is made more difficult, suggesting that developmental changes may also reflect decisions about whether to engage control, and how. We tested awareness of temporal control demands and associated task choices in 5- and 10-year-olds and adults using a demand selection task. Participants chose between one task that enabled proactive control and another task that enabled reactive control. Adults reported awareness of these different control demands and preferentially played the proactive task option. Ten-year-olds reported awareness of control demands but selected task options at chance. Five-year-olds showed neither awareness nor task preference, but a subsample who exhibited awareness of control demands preferentially played the reactive task option, mirroring their typical control mode. Thus, developmental improvements in executive function may in part reflect better awareness of cognitive demands and adaptive behavior, which may in turn reflect changes in dorsal anterior cingulate in signaling task demands to lateral prefrontal cortex.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Laura Kranz

<p>According to the Dual Mechanisms of Control (DMC) framework (Braver, 2012) distraction can be controlled either proactively (i.e., before the onset of a distractor) or reactively (i.e., after the onset of a distractor). Research clearly indicates that, when distractors are emotionally neutral, proactive mechanisms are more effective at controlling distraction than reactive mechanisms. However, whether proactive control mechanisms can control irrelevant emotional distractions as effectively as neutral distraction is not known. In the current thesis I examined cognitive control over emotional distraction. In Experiment 1, I tested whether proactive mechanisms can control emotional distraction as effectively as neutral distraction. Participants completed a distraction task. On each trial, they determined whether a centrally presented target letter (embedded amongst a circle of ‘o’s) was an ‘X’ or an ‘N’, while ignoring peripheral distractors (negative, neutral, or positive images). Distractors were presented on either a low proportion (25%) or a high proportion (75%) of trials, to evoke reactive and proactive cognitive control strategies, respectively. Emotional images (both positive and negative) produced more distraction than neutral images in the low distractor frequency (i.e., reactive control) condition. Critically, emotional distraction was almost abolished in the high distractor frequency condition; emotional images were only slightly more distracting than neutral images, suggesting that proactive mechanisms can control emotional distraction almost as effectively as neutral distraction. In Experiment 2, I replicated and extended Experiment 1. ERPs were recorded while participants completed the distraction task. An early index (the early posterior negativity; EPN) and a late index (the late positive potential; LPP) of emotional processing were examined to investigate the mechanisms by which proactive control minimises emotional distraction. The behavioural results of Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, providing further support for the hypothesis that proactive mechanisms can control emotional distractions as effectively as neutral distractions. While proactive control was found to eliminate early emotional processing of positive distractors, it paradoxically did not attenuate late emotional processing of positive distractors. On the other hand, proactive control eliminated late emotional processing of negative distractors. However, the early index of emotional processing was not a reliable index of negative distractor processing under either reactive or proactive conditions. Taken together, my findings show that proactive mechanisms can effectively control emotional distraction, but do not clearly establish the mechanisms by which this occurs.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanjun Zheng ◽  
Yuanping Tao ◽  
Yuzhen Li ◽  
Hang Ye ◽  
Jun Luo

Revenge is common in our daily lives, and people feel good when engaging in revenge behavior. However, revenge behavior is a complex process and remains somewhat of a puzzle of human behavior. Neuroimaging studies have revealed that revenge behaviors are associated with activation of a neural network containing the anterior cingulate cortex, ventral striatum, inferior frontal gyrus, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Recent brain stimulation research using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation has shown a causal relationship between brain regions and revenge behaviors, but the findings have been mixed. In the present study, we aimed to study whether stimulation in the DLPFC can change participants’ revenge behavior in conditions where participants’ wealth was taken away in different ways. We adapted the moonlighting game and designed a new paradigm. Our study revealed that revenge behavior increased following activation in the right DLPFC, suggesting that the right DLPFC plays an important role in overriding self-interest and retaliation. In addition, our results revealed that the right DLPFC is crucial in revenge behavior related to the motivation of invasion.


2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (9) ◽  
pp. 2313-2327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cong Liu ◽  
Kalinka Timmer ◽  
Lu Jiao ◽  
Yuan Yuan ◽  
Ruiming Wang

How do faces with social-cultural identity affect bilingual language control? We approach this question by looking at the switch cost patterns and reversed language dominance effect, which are suggested to reflect bilingual language control mechanisms, in the absence (i.e., baseline context) or presence of faces with socio-cultural identity (Asian or Caucasian). In separate blocks, the face matched (i.e., congruent context) or mismatched (i.e., incongruent context) the language to be spoken. In addition, cue preparation time was manipulated to be long (Experiment 1) or short (Experiment 2). In both experiments, a unique asymmetric switch cost with larger costs for L2 was observed in the congruent context as compared with the baseline and incongruent contexts. Furthermore, the reversed language dominance effect was not modulated across contexts. These results suggest a critical role of contextual faces in modulating local but not global language control. Thus, bilingual language control changes flexibly within an environment that includes faces with socio-cultural identity.


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