H2020Индивидуална стипендия2018–2020

NeuroBid · Inside the bi-dialectal mind and brain: An electrophysiological study on executive functions

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2018-03-01 → 2020-02-29
Финансиране от ЕС: 151 649 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF-EF-ST

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Когнитивните функции на хора, говорещи два диалекта (например кипърски и стандартен гръцки), се сравняват с тези на езиковите монолингвисти. Това помага да се разбере дали владеенето на различни езикови варианти подобрява паметта, вниманието и гъвкавостта на мозъка.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Inside the bi-dialectal mind and brain: An electrophysiological study on executive functions

There is a widespread impression in Western societies that monolingualism is the norm, but in fact most people function in multilingual and/or bi-dialectal settings. In Europe, it is estimated that around 54% of the population can functionally use a second language. Equally, the European sociolinguistic landscape suggests that bi-dialectals –speakers of two closely related linguistic varieties, known as dialects- exist across Europe (e.g. in Cyprus with speakers of Cypriot Greek and Standard Modern Greek). Recently, research on how bilingualism affects cognitive and brain functioning has seen a steep increase. Within this body of work, several studies have provided evidence in support to the hypothesis that bilingualism enhances executive control, a set of brain and cognitive processes that include inhibition (the ability to inhibit irrelevant information), working memory (the ability to simultaneously hold and manipulate information in mind) and switching (the skill to flexibly switch between different tasks). However, it is yet not clear from this research whether bilingualism affects specific executive control processes (e.g. inhibition) or whether it has a broader effect across executive control components. In addition, the bilingual benefit has not always been replicated and this led some researchers to challenge its very existence. Finally, relative to bilingualism, bi-dialectalism has so far received very little research attention (at least from a neurocognitive perspective that compares the neurocognitive profile of bi-dialectals to that of bilinguals and monolinguals). Examining bi-dialectals’ neurocognition is all the more urgent as bi-dialectals and dialects are often associated with several negative stereotypes in the communities (e.g. bi-dialectals often under-perform at school with the blame put on their intelligence and dialects are considered inferior forms of speech or careless language when used in education). In this context, NeuroBid aimed to closely examine the effect of bilingualism and bi-dialectalism on executive control. In doing so, we also wanted to establish the neurocognitive profile of bi-dialectals as compared to multilinguals and monolinguals (focusing on executive control) and to determine whether the typological distance between the languages spoken by bilinguals (smaller for bi-dialectals) modulates the bilingual advantage. The final goal was to examine whether bilingualism/bi-dialectalism affect specific cognitive components or the EC network as a whole.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

There is widespread impression in Western societies that monolingualism is the norm, but in fact most people function in multilingual and/or bi-dialectal settings. Recently, there has been an upsurge of research on the cognitive effects of bilingualism, with several studies reporting an enhancement of executive control skills in bilinguals. In contrast to bilingualism, however, bi-dialectalism has so far received essentially no research attention. In this context, NeuroBid proposes a multidisciplinary approach that uses both cognitive assessments and electrophysiological measures (Event-Related Potentials) to achieve four goals. The first aim is to characterise the profile of bi-dialectals at both the cognitive and the neural level, focusing on a specific neuro-cognitive system, executive control (EC). In achieving this goal, a second aim will be accomplished, to establish the effect of language similarity on the neuro-cognitive outcomes of bilingualism. The third goal is to explore previous failures to replicate the bilingual cognitive advantage in EC with young adults and to determine whether a bilingual benefit will indeed surface when an experiment that avoids several methodological drawbacks of previous research is implemented. The final aim is to provide data to adjudicate between theoretical accounts regarding the specific locus of the bilingual EC benefit. With a fellowship to implement NeuroBid, the Candidate will provide results and publications that will contribute to a better understanding of the bi-dialectal mind and brain, and will answer important, theory-relevant questions in the neuro-cognitive research on bilingualism; he will also acquire new competences in neuroscientific tools, and receive training in key transferable skills. This will strengthen his academic profile and help him secure a permanent academic post in Europe.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS · NicosiaКоординаторКипър