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. 2021 May;150(5):996-1007.
doi: 10.1037/xge0000956. Epub 2020 Oct 26.

Prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has a domain-specific impact on bilingual language control

Kelly A Vaughn  1 , Emily M Watlington  1 , Paulina Linares Abrego  1 , Benjamin J Tamber-Rosenau  1 , Arturo E Hernandez  1
Affiliations

Prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has a domain-specific impact on bilingual language control

Kelly A Vaughn et al. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2021 May.

Abstract

Researchers debate whether domain-general cognitive control supports bilingual language control through brain regions such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a method to alter brain activity, which can lead to causal attribution of task performance to regional brain activity. The current study examined whether the DLPFC enables domain-general control for between-language switching and nonlinguistic switching and whether the control enabled by DLPFC differs between bilinguals and monolinguals. tDCS was applied to the DLPFC of bilingual and monolingual young adults before they performed linguistic and nonlinguistic switching measures. For bilinguals, left DLPFC stimulation selectively worsened nonlinguistic switching, but not within-language switching. Left DLPFC stimulation also resulted in higher overall accuracy on bilingual picture-naming. These findings suggest that language control and cognitive control are distinct processes in relation to the left DLPFC. The left DLPFC may aid bilingual language control, but stimulating it does not benefit nonlinguistic control. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Switching task designs. Responses for the shape-color task were recorded from the keyboard. Responses from the picture-naming and action-object tasks were recorded from the microphone.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Overall accuracy (proportion correct, 0 = 0% correct, 1 = 100% correct) for bilinguals during the picture-naming task. Left Anodal DLPFC tDCS resulted in the highest accuracy for the picture-naming task. Error bars represent 95% confidence interval.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Accuracy switch costs for bilinguals during the picture-naming task, action-object task, and shape-color task. Left Anodal DLPFC tDCS worsens accuracy switch costs only for the shape-color task. Accuracy switch costs for the picture-naming task and action-object task are minimal and appear unaffected by tDCS. Error bars represent 95% confidence interval.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Accuracy switch costs for monolinguals during the action-object task and shape-color task. Accuracy switch costs for the action-object task are minimal and appear unaffected by tDCS. Accuracy switch costs exist for the shape-color task but appear unaffected by tDCS. Error bars represent 95% confidence interval.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Participant judgments of their treatment group. Most participants believed they received the real stimulation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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