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Trilingual Language Control - Exploring the Neural Basis of Interference and Control in MEG
Poster Session F, Friday, October 2, 2:45 - 4:45 pm, Wangari Maathai
This poster is part of the Sandbox Series.
Maya Thille1, Sophie Slaats1, Alexis Hervais-Adelman1; 1Department of Basic Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Multilingual Language Control (MLC) is the dynamic process that allows a multilingual individual to engage with an appropriate target language while disengaging from other known languages, a process that is often explained in terms of inhibition. The Inhibitory Control Model (ICM) proposes that when attempting to produce linguistic output, each potential target language translation is activated, and when selecting the correct language all other known languages must be inhibited, with the amount of inhibition being proportional to the dominance of the language. In a trilingual speeded picture naming study, de Bruin and colleagues (J. Mem. Lang., 2023) reported significantly more intrusions from the third language (L3) than the first language (L1) when naming in the second language (L2), aligning with the ICM. To investigate the locus of these effects, we conducted a behavioral study in trilingual (English/French/German) participants with varying language profiles in terms of age of acquisition (AoA) and proficiency. In this study, 69 participants completed the LHQ3, a lexical decision task for relative proficiency, and a speeded picture naming task balanced between Switch/NonSwitch trials in each language. The stimuli were matched on letter number/phoneme number/orthographic Levenstein distance/word frequency. Responses were scored as correct/incorrect/no response/intrusion (specified by erroneous language produced). We found more L3 intrusions in L2 target trials only in the switch condition and more L2 intrusions in both L1/L3 target trials. De Bruin and colleagues also found these patterns of results, but in L2 target trials there were more L3 intrusions in both conditions. Analyses of our intrusion patterns with continuous AoA and proficiency predictors revealed that languages with similar AoAs/proficiencies interfere with each other. Additionally, languages that have mismatched profiles, meaning low AoA and high proficiency or high AoA and low proficiency, show more intrusions. This suggests an increase in cognitive control necessary to inhibit these languages, regardless of their ordinal position. Overall, these results show that MLC is mediated by an interplay between the AoA and proficiency of the known languages. In this proposed study, we aim to provide a link between the effect of AoA/proficiency on the behavioral results and the neurobiological frameworks of MLC. By using magnetoencephalography, we intend to elucidate the temporal- and spatial correlates of the effects of AoA/proficiency on MLC using the same speeded naming paradigm. Based on previous fMRI and MEG work, MLC recruits a widely distributed network including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), supplementary motor area (SMA), and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). We expect that the frontal regions, especially the DLPFC, will be recruited earlier and more extensively in the L2 and L3 trials as they require more control. Furthermore, we expect to see earlier activation of the left PFC followed by a coordination of the right PFC and IFG, which have been associated with inhibition and that the latency of response in these regions will be modulated by AoA and proficiency. We expect that on trials with intrusions, there will be substantial recruitment of the ACC/pre-SMA, which have been associated with error monitoring.
Topic Areas: Multilingualism, Language Production