York University, Canada.
York University, Canada.
Brain Cogn. 2019 Aug;134:29-43. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2019.05.004. Epub 2019 May 17.
Bilingualism is associated with enhancement of executive control (EC) across the lifespan. Working memory and non-verbal emotion regulation both draw upon EC mechanisms so may also be affected by bilingualism, but these relationships are not fully understood. These relationships were explored using an n-back task with distracting emotional stimuli administered to young adults while continuous EEG was recorded. Monolinguals were faster but less accurate on the 2-back than bilinguals, and monolingual accuracy was more impeded by the presence of emotional stimuli than was that of bilinguals. The P300 event-related potential, a neural signature of working memory processing in the n-back, had smaller amplitudes in both groups on the 2-back than the 1-back, but attenuation in response to distracting emotional stimuli was greater for bilinguals than monolinguals. P300 latencies were also differentially affected by emotional stimuli in each group: Bilingual latencies were constant across emotions but monolingual latencies increased from neutral to angry conditions. In general, bilingual performance was less impacted by the emotional distraction than was that of the monolinguals. Additionally, bilinguals adjusted to the changing demands of the 1-back and 2-back conditions by recruiting neural networks to support different behavioral outcomes than monolinguals.
双语能力与整个生命周期的执行控制（EC）增强有关。工作记忆和非言语情绪调节都依赖于 EC 机制，因此也可能受到双语的影响，但这些关系尚未完全理解。通过在年轻成年人进行连续 EEG 记录的同时使用带有分心情绪刺激的 n-back 任务来探索这些关系。在 2-back 任务中，单语者比双语者更快但准确性更低，并且与双语者相比，情绪刺激的存在更会阻碍单语者的准确性。P300 事件相关电位是 n-back 工作记忆处理的神经标志，在 2-back 时，两个组的 P300 振幅都比 1-back 时小，但双语者对分心情绪刺激的反应衰减大于单语者。P300 潜伏期也因每组中的情绪刺激而受到不同的影响：双语者的潜伏期在不同情绪下保持不变，但单语者的潜伏期从中性到愤怒条件下增加。总的来说，双语者的表现受情绪干扰的影响小于单语者。此外，双语者通过招募神经网络来适应 1-back 和 2-back 条件的变化需求，从而支持与单语者不同的行为结果。
