Bilingual Cognitive Control in Language Switching: An fMRI Study of English-Chinese Late Bilinguals

The present study explored the bilingual cognitive control mechanism by comparing Chinese-English bilinguals' language switching in a blocked picture naming paradigm against three baseline conditions, namely the control condition (a fixation cross, low-level baseline), single L1 production (Chinese naming, high-level baseline), and single L2 production (English naming, high-level baseline). Different activation patterns were observed for language switching against different baseline conditions. These results indicate that different script bilingual language control involves a fronto-parietal-subcortical network that extends to the precentral gyrus, the Supplementary Motor Area, the Supra Marginal Gyrus, and the fusiform. The different neural correlates identified across different comparisons supported that bilingual language switching involves high-level cognitive processes that are not specific to language processing. Future studies adopting a network approach are crucial in identifying the functional connectivity among regions subserving language control.