Does Speaking Two Dialects in Daily Life Affect Executive Functions? An Event-Related Potential Study

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psycholinguistics
• Neuroscience

Background:

• The bilingual advantage hypothesis suggests that speaking multiple languages enhances executive functions.
• Research has primarily focused on comparing monolingual and bilingual speakers, leaving the impact of speaking multiple dialects within one language less explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether speaking two Chinese dialects confers an advantage in executive functions compared to speaking only one.
• To examine the neural processes underlying executive control in bi-dialectal versus mono-dialectal speakers using event-related potentials (ERPs).

Main Methods:

• A classic Flanker task was administered to two groups of native Chinese speakers: mono-dialectal Mandarin speakers and bi-dialectal speakers (Mandarin and Southern-Min).
• Behavioral performance and event-related potentials (ERPs) were simultaneously recorded to assess executive control and neural activity.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in behavioral performance on the Flanker task were observed between the bi-dialectal and mono-dialectal groups.
• Event-related potentials (ERPs) showed an earlier P2 component in the bi-dialectal group, indicating different early neural processing.
• No differences in the N2 component, an index of conflict resolution, were found between the groups.

Conclusions:

• Speaking two dialects of the same language does not appear to enhance executive functions.
• While distinct neural processes may be engaged, the behavioral outcome for executive control tasks remains comparable to mono-dialectal speakers.
• These findings challenge a broad interpretation of the bilingual advantage hypothesis, suggesting that the linguistic distance or nature of language acquisition may be critical factors.