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Updated: Mar 30, 2026

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task
Published on: February 26, 2020
Balanced bilinguals favor lexical processing in their opaque language and conversion system in their shallow language
Karin A Buetler1, Diego de León Rodríguez1, Marina Laganaro2
1Laboratory for Cognitive and Neurological Sciences, Neurology Unit, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Science, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Referred to as orthographic depth, the degree of consistency of grapheme/phoneme correspondences varies across languages from high in shallow orthographies to low in deep orthographies. The present study investigates the impact of orthographic depth on reading route by analyzing evoked potentials to words in a deep (French) and shallow (German) language presented to highly proficient bilinguals. ERP analyses to German and French words revealed significant topographic modulations 240-280 ms post-stimulus onset, indicative of distinct brain networks engaged in reading over this time window. Source estimations revealed that these effects stemmed from modulations of left insular, inferior frontal and dorsolateral regions (German>French) previously associated to phonological processing. Our results show that reading in a shallow language was associated to a stronger engagement of phonological pathways than reading in a deep language. Thus, the lexical pathways favored in word reading are reinforced by phonological networks more strongly in the shallow than deep orthography.
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