Neural Processing Underlying Executive Functions in Bilinguals: “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose”

Abstract

Many studies have claimed bilingualism strengthens the neural mechanisms that underpin executive functions and enhances cognition in the elderly (Bialystok, 2017). Nevertheless, the field of bilingualism research has suffered from contradictory interpretations of results and many of the neural differences between monolinguals and bilinguals (in some cases, such patterns of results are difficult to interpret) have been taken as evidence for enhanced neural processing in bilinguals compared to monolinguals (de Bruin et al., inpress; Paap et al., 2015). Currently, researchers disagree regarding the existence of improved executive functioning in bilinguals compared to monolinguals—e.g., Bialystok (2017) states there is evidence for the mentioned improvements whereas Paap et al. (2015) remain skeptical. In the present article, after recapping the main sources of variability in research findings (Figure 1, top panel), contradictory interpretation of results is examined. This issue highlights the importance of theoretically-grounded studies such as Cespón and Carreiras (2020), which defines what specific event-related brain potential differences between monolinguals and bilinguals should be taken to indicate enhanced bilingual neural processing during executive tasks.